A different beginning
by shunozuko18
Summary: With the present broken, the future blurry, the only place left to go to is the past. A time travel fic. Rating is subject to change.
1. Prologue

A Different Beginning

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Disclaimer: I, same as all of the other Naruto fanfic authors here in this site do not own Naruto. Naruto is the property of Hinata and Masashi Kishimoto. Any other reference used in this little piece of literary of mine is owned by their perspective writers and artists.

There is also a very important author's note on the end of the chapter which is almost a must to read.

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Authors note: Please read

Before all, I would like to tell that this is my first fanfiction as well as English is the 3rd language I've learned so I hope that the readers would not be too hard on my grammar. I am also still a student, A college student but a student nonetheless, This means that I have still much to learn about how the world works, this leads to the fact that I may be overlooking factors that may have made the story better or worse or my writing may be too immature for the taste of more experienced individuals.

Nevertheless I will try my best to satisfy not only myself but also the readers especially.

This fanfic's beginning is also based on a few fanfic's combined. The titles of which I do not remember (kindly please enlighten me if you have an idea of their titles so I can reference it here) so please don't flame me for copying or plagiarism.

This is also a time travel fics with a 'very' slightly different approach than the others.

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Speech- "Naruto, where are you going?"

Thoughts- _'I wonder where Naruto is going'_

(Bold letters mean serious business or bijuu stuff, pretty sure you guys know how this works already)

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Prologue: A tragic end, the start of a different beginning.

7 years ago, I fought Kaguya with those who I consider my best friends, Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi -sensei. I'd have thought we would win and end all this madness but no, I was wrong. I didn't take into account that she would be so convicted in her quest for power, that she wouldn't be underestimating us, that she would be doing all she could do and especially. She would be making Kakashi-sensei and Sakura as hostages when we finally weakened and cornered her on our dimension. Of course it was Sasuke who decided that sacrifices must be made, but not without a moment of inner turmoil. That was what I wanted to believe. I was too shocked to stop Sasuke as he was already on his way to her when he said. "Do you really think that will stop me from killing you?" I prepared to stop him, but I was too late.

I thought it would be over but no. Sasuke froze when Kaguya used Sakura and Kakashi-sensei as meat shield and he hit them, too much blood poured from their bodies. Sakura seemed to mumble something but it was too silent and far even from my enhanced hearing. I saw shock was written in Sasuke's face after seemingly hearing what she said. His Susano was already gone due to exhaustion and now his guard was way too open. It was enough for Kaguya to make a move and attack Sasuke. She picked up a blade from the dozens littering on the floor obviously owned by one of the many ninjas trapped in the Eternal Tsukiyomi, she was too weak already to make a new one from her bone nor could she muster to teleport otherwise wouldn't have to resort to this dirty tactic. The blade she picked up was then pushed to Sasuke's stomach bringing forth a lot of blood.

This event brought forth even more shock to my already numbing mind but at the same time jolted me awake thus; I sprinted towards the falling form of Sasuke, unbridled rage in my face, and my Ashura sage of the six path mode flaring even when exhausted due to adrenaline. Kaguya was fast to leap away unable to fly with the little energy left in her.

I made a clone with what little energy I have left to watch out for Kaguya. I can't give her another chance to hurt us more. I then held Sasuke on the back then while I was sitting to give his back something to lean on.

"Sasuke, why?" I couldn't stop the tear that fell from my eye.

He started to sob. "I knew I could do it, sacrifice them. But she….she". He closed his eyes for a bit, tears forming from his eyes then they started to fall as droplets before he opened his eyes again and continued speaking.

"She smiled and said she loved me. It...'sobs'...it, it was the same face she made to stop me from leaving the village and the same one she made when we were older and said I should return. I don't know how but the face she made. It looked like the same face Kaa-san used to make when she said she loves me. The same face Tou-san makes when I do something to make him happy. The same smile Nii-san makes before he flicks my forehead. I...I didn't know what to do then. The memories I once cherished surfaced and were in my eyes for a few fleeting seconds". There was a melancholic look in his smiling face now.

"Sasuke speak later, we should be finding ways to heal you. I can't lose you right after losing Sakura and Kakashi-sensei; I don't know what I would do without anybody left with me". I was frantically looking left and right now for a miracle to help Sasuke but stopped when I heard him speak.

"Heh". He chuckled, gurgling a bit of blood before continuing.

"Funny how I'm now just realizing how important you are and should be to me Naruto...Don't bother, don't promise to heal me, I know there's no way now, it's futile. The last thing I want you to do is breaking your Nindo, So don't promise and make me believe you can because I'll probably fall for it now".

Tears were streaming in my face now. My Sage of six path aura gone for adrenaline was the only thing powering it. Sometime during the battle, Kaguya did something to sever my connection to Kurama. She was able to stop our mental connection but not the energy he was giving me, it was only later on when I realized that the energy from Kurama I was using was not directly coursing from him but was what was already combined with my own and so I didn't realize that it was limited before there was too little left. I tried entering my mindscape but it was a futile attempt

"Darn, if I still had Kurama help I could give you a bit of chakra to heal". I shouted to no one in particular.

"Naruto" He called. His voice was quiet and almost a whisper so I almost didn't pick it up after my shout. "If...if...If I had another chance, I'll definitely want to be your brother". His eyes then lost their light signifying his depart.

"No!". I didn't know how long I screamed or how long I was looking at the dead bodies of my comrades after crying when Kaguya called out to me.

"You!I'll kill you" I prepared myself before dashing to strike her and kill her in anyway.

I never noticed that she was already fully healed nor how she did it so I never even bothered to think how it happened.

"You think you can defeat me in that pitiful state". She easily avoided my attacks and flew to a distance without striking me.

"Be happy that I will no longer be pursuing you, you can keep the fox, it's not like you can still be in contact with him, and I no longer need nor want it. Knowing that you are living your life hiding behind your tails, grieving the loss of your friends is enough for me. Be gone, or I might change my mind. Don't worry; I'll be sure to manipulate the moon so that it won't affect you. After all what's the sense of making you suffer if you can get all you even want in an empty dream".

She wasn't laughing nor grinning but her face did not hide her amusement to my current state.

I wanted to kill her, punch her, break her and destroy her for what she did, but I know there's no way for me to be able to do that now. I need to recover and get my connection to Kurama back to even stand a chance of beating her. It took all four of us to corner her, and now. I'm the only man left not under the Illusion. The future looks grim, and I hold the last candle of hope. But I'll keep hold of that candle and alight all others, but first. I need to run away and hide.

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That was 7 years ago. Now I am alone then with no one to be seen inside the room of a decrepit lab. There was nobody I'd see if I exited this room nor can there be anyone else seen from a kilometer radius, the nearest town was at least a mile away, there was no reason to neither stay nor visit there, everyone was already hit by infinite Tsukiyomi. I already tried my best doing anything to disrupt the effects of the moon's eye plan even for just a single person. It seems that the connection made using the moon was so strong that even covering or breaking the contact with moonlight doesn't have any effect at all, that and all the various stuffs I did.

It took me 7 years after my confrontation of Kaguya to finally restore my connection to Kurama. I activated the seal I added to my stomach and finally entered my mindscape.

Upon entering my mindscape, Kurama instantly greeted me.

 **"Naruto, I'm sorry to say this but it seems that you do not have much time. I'm sure you've seen what is happening to the people of the world. It requires at least 10 years gathering all the chakra and transferring it to Kaguya. All of the people would be like shrivelled raisins by then. From what little glimpses I saw in your mind, it was already 7 years, that's only 3 years and there is no certainty whether Kaguya would wait for that 10 years before going after you. ".** The bijuu said to me right after I was able to reconnect to him.

"7 years of not seeing me and that's what you say first, not even a hello or hi?"

I chuckled a bit. Funny that just when something good happens, another problem emerges. Well, it's not like I'm expecting myself to live on solitude this till the end of my Uzumaki lifespan. I'd probably be mad long before that happens.

 **"You don't understand. The Shinju really does want all of its power back. I'd bet that Kaguya would be overpowered by the Juubi's will by then. You can't have all the chakra of the world forced to be on a single container for a long time. The Juubi is the "will of the world". One day it's going to find a way to return things to where they belong, and now that it sees humanity as a threat. There will be no way you'll have another chance to walk on the surface."** He said it with absolute seriousness that I was forced to ponder on the words he just said.

"What do you suggest I do then huh, I did my best, and I've been roaming around all the elemental nations learning all sorts of jutsu's I could possibly learn. I've been researching knowledge on how the inner workings of chakra work. Yin release? Yang release? Bloodlines? Chakra Theories? Fuinjutsu? I've seen them, learned them and tried to use them to free them from Kaguya's grasp. Heck I'm probably the smartest man alive now with all the things inside my head. The shadow clone jutsu really is a boon. I don't even understand why I can still remember most of the things I learned; I should probably be a vegetable head with all the information present inside my brain now". I wasn't really mad at him but my voice clearly held an aggressive edge on shouldn't it? All that's been happening around lately is trouble after trouble stacking like the never ending paperwork of a Kage. I felt like I was born to just to receive all the problems of the world, I know it isn't but lately I've been having too much depressing thoughts due to my solace.

"We both know you aren't the smartest person Naruto, not now not before ". Kurama said in a straight face.

We stared eye to eye for minute there. Not blinking even once. _'Did he just mock me?'_ I thought after a minute of silence.

"Oh great, humanity is nearing its end. And here I am. Alone with probably the only sane creature conscious .' _'I sure as hell don't consider Kaguya sane'_. Said creature still has the time to mock my intelligence even while rushing me to create a solution to all this mess like it's as simple as making a shadow clone". I said after my mind started to boot again after it froze due to his dry joke.

The Kyuubi sighed and answered me in a lighter tone. **"I just thought that you should get a break after all of this mess, and what's best to relieve you other than a joke about your intelligence?"**

We stood there in silence for a while after that. We were inside my mindscape then so I looked around it for changes, clues or even traps that Kaguya may have left. You can't live in hiding from a monster without learning to be cautious each moment even during a break. By the looks of it, everything seems to be on place and the same as before he was 'cut off' from me. Apparently she was only able to suppress my connection to Kurama by preventing me from entering my mindscape and somehow she also made Kurama enter a semi comma state preventing him from aiding me with his chakra. How she did this? I don't know or even remember, it's been years after all. I didn't even discover how she was able fully heal herself during that time I was holding the dying body of Sasuke. I also found it strange that Kurama was not acting the way he was before but that's probably because of the situation at hand.

With how Kurama was acting and talking. He was probably semi-conscious during our 'separation' too. He seems to have an idea of what I've seen and learned though it is clearly incomplete otherwise this talk would not go this way. Or so I think, I've been running through deductions for a while now. I don't have anybody to assist or tell me about things for a while now so I have been doing things my way. My vocabulary really did get a level up after learning a lot of things.

After an unknown amount of time looking around and standing. I finally decided to speak to him. "So, what do I do now? Do you perhaps have one idea?" I said that casually hoping that he has another idea that seems safer than what I've already prepared for.

 **"Yes"**. He said. He didn't seem to be planning to say more so I did my deductions and sighed after finding a possible conclusion.

"Let me guess, it's hard to do, Requires Fuinjutsu, a great sacrifice and I cannot make a mistake or else I'll die right? "His eyes widened after each guess I said.

 _'Sigh. It looks like his idea is the same as mine. This plan is too risky but it's the only one I have left the fact that there is a huge chance of it not going right is another thing to consider too'_ I thought.

 **"How?"** He really seems to be surprised that I could think that far or advanced even with all the recent events going on.

 _'Tsk looks like he really does underestimate my intellect. Can't fault him, I probably wouldn't be able to think this far if it wasn't for the circumstances. 'Sigh again', Even my own mind sees myself on a lower standard_ '.

"Years of hiding in Solitude's, and looking for a seemingly impossible answer to a seemingly impossible question can give you a boost to how you perceive things". I finally replied to his inquiry.

 **"I guess you do, this probably means you already know what I'm talking about"**

"Time Travel. With the present broken, the future blurry. The only thing left is the past" I answered.

 **"That is correct but this time travel is with a twist"**

"A twist? Isn't the sacrifice, the complex Fuinjutsu and the ritual stuff the twist you're talking about?"

 **"No, I'm afraid I can't tell you what the twist is until the method is executed. Which leads me to the question? If you knew time travel was the best answer to this problem, why didn't you do the preparations to it nor tell me immediately?"**

"Who said I didn't do the preparations?" I retorted.

 **"Then why did you get mad at me when I told you about what's going to happen to these people?"**

"I had thought you would have another solution, one with lesser risk involved"

He raised an invisible brow and looked around the area outside my mindscape and in the real world.

I was on one of Orochimaru's bases on the land of rice paddings, inside the room that is Square shaped, 10 meters long and wide as the technique required. I did find it strange that Orochimaru had a specific room of this size. Scrolls, brushes, ink, plants, bones of unknown origin, blood, fur and various things of which name's I already forgot littered on the around the room and a strange Fuinjutsu pattern on the center of the it. Only the best Fuinjutsu masters would probably be able to decipher it, I bet Jiraiya-sensei wouldn't even have an inkling of what this Fuinjutsu is. After all he was only able to reach a level 4 Master Rank in the art of Fuinjutsu.

During my travels I learned that there are 7 ranks of Fuinjutsu mastery. Each rank with 4 levels depicting how close you are to achieving the next rank. There was a Fuinjutsu technique to be used that scans your mind to properly know what level you were in order that you would know what actual rank and level you actually are so that one might limit themselves to creating seals that are lower tier or same level that they are so as to prevent errors, failure and worst death. Fuinjutsu while having a great potential for greatness also has a great potential for destruction not only for the enemies but also one's self. After all a wrong stroke of your paintbrush is enough to destroy any part of your body.

The 7 ranks of Fuinjutsu I learned were:

 **rank** : This rank is basically just mastering your calligraphy by practicing the most basic seals using plain ink to prevent probable destruction. Mastering this is a must as anyone who practices Fuinjutsu must have a perfect calligraphy. There shall be no error in Fuinjutsu as the slightest mistake can make a big difference in what might happen. One does not make any working seal here but its requirements. While you do memorize the simplest kinds of Fuinjutsu

Before moving to next rank involves mastering the basic principles of Fuinjutsu. Sai himself is sure to be at level 4 of this rank even if he doesn't practice Fuinjutsu.

 **rank** : As the name implies, this rank requires one a mentor. Nobody, I repeat, nobody should practice Fuinjutsu without a mentor. Fuinjutsu is not doodling. It's the art of finding the loopholes of physics and bending reality. This rank allows one to make a basic storage seal and explosive notes. The Mentor obviously should be at least a Master Rank as he will be teaching you more advanced principles of Fuinjutsu and its methods.

 **rank** : Entering level 1 of this rank means you already have what it takes to start tinkering with reality. Although you can't invent your own seals here as you still do not have sufficient knowledge. You should be able to replicate and tinker with some seals here. This is the rank where you are able to make the explosive tags and storage seals in your body though limited and make most kind of seals that are sold in Shinobi equipment stores.

 **4th. Master rank** : This rank means you've mastered all there is to know about the basic and semi complex principles of Fuinjutsu. Well, only those things that can be taught though. There are things that one must discover on their own. After all there is a saying that states "A true master is an eternal student". One who has entered this rank must be at least aware of how the purest form of elements and chemicals work alone and in collaboration or mixture which means alchemy(a/n: chemical science and not FMA alchemy) as it is greatly linked to the principles of the how the world works. This rank means you can make more advanced stuff alone such as chakra suppression seals, Chakra Absorbing seals (With varied natures), Training Seals (Weight and Resistance) and Barrier seals. A combat type Fuinjutsu specialist is a force you must be cautious of when in battle. As I stated, Jiraiya-sensei was at Level4 in here while Kakashi-sensei was at level 1 Sarutobi-Jiji was only level 2 in this rank.

 **5th. Voyager Rank** : The name implies that you are already prepared to find new ways of utilizing Fuinjutsu which are not taught or discovered yet by anybody. There is a huge boundary between a level1 voyager rank to a level4 master rank. Orochimaru himself should have been only a level 4 master rank but forced his way through here by including his twisted ways that should not have been.

In the end his curse mark seal both of heaven and earth were never "perfect" in the principles of Fuinjutsu. There are far too many Restrictions, Requirements and Drawbacks that could have been removed had he truly been a voyager rank. I can proudly say that my Father, Minato "The yellow flash" was at this rank with the Hiraishin as proof. An example of a seal made a voyager rank fuin specialist is the caged bird seal, which itself is considered to be a high level even for this rank. It's method of creation has been passed through Hyuuga elders with them not even entering this rank.

 **6th. Grandmaster Rank** : No creature is all knowing. While being a grandmaster doesn't mean that you know all seals that exist including individual creations or unique seals. Those in this rank will be capable of identifying what most seals can do, its purpose and even its limitation and requirements. Those high levelled in this rank can also recreate almost all individual creations or unique seals (such as Hiraishin) given enough time even without any help. While Uzushio was still standing, Becoming Uzukage or leader of the village requires them to be at least level 1 of this rank. So far there have been only 19 individuals known to be at this level 13 of those were Uzumaki which includes me, who is currently at Level.3 as the FuinRank Scanner showed. Of course there could be those not known in this rank but getting to this rank paints a large target on your back as most of those who reach this rank reached it due to their never ending pursuit to devising new and unique ways of creating seals thus making them widely known.

 **7th. Seal Sage Rank** : This is the epitome of Fuinjutsu ranking. It is known that there has been only one who was said to attain this rank. His name was long forgotten or probably, he never revealed it. The only reason he is still known to exist was due to his works. Though his works were passed down and learned by a lot of people. Even the Grandmaster Ranks were never able to grasp the knowledge of how he was able to create such seals. Some of his works were; The reaper death seal, a seal which creates a contract to the Shinigami to bind another creature for the cost of one's own soul; The summoning contracts(any) that allows the human to bind himself to the realm of the summons and call out these creatures with only chakra as a medium and especially; The Void Gate seal that allows one to enter an empty dimension to temporarily escape ones connection to time and delay aging, this one was the basis of a storage seal before it was lost, though the storage seal was never able to store a living being while putting them on a stasis like the original does perfectly but merely slow the time by a bit. The void gate was a lost Fuinjutsu like many of his other works. The FuinRank Scanner seal was also made by this person.

After Kurama looked around, seemingly looking for any mistake to my work. He looked at me in the mind's eye and said.

 **"You did a good job, I won't ask how you were able to find and learn this Fuinjutsu which is already branching out of its area and leaning more on Rituals. This is one of that SealSage's lost Fuinjutsu so you probably had a hard time preparing it. I'm sure of the fact that you don't really know the inner workings of this ritual".**

"You are right; the only thing I am sure of is that this ritual can take me back in time." I said. Admitting my lack of information about the rituals inner workings.

"Ikagura's Return Ritual. That's this rituals name. I don't know why he named this based on a woman. After all, it was confirmed that he was a man so this clearly isn't his name. I found it on the Uzukage's vault in Uzushio. The raiders if our land wasn't even able to make a dent on the vault due to the 6th rank seals surrounding it. The ritual itself was not found inside the vault but written around it entwined with the other seals to protect the vault. I was inspecting the seals protecting the vault to open it when I noticed some unrelated seals entwined on it, Strangely enough, those seals weren't affecting the security seals in any way, truly magnificent that sage was. I couldn't even muster to think of a way of how he did it, so I decided to research its true purpose." I paused a bit before continuing.

"When I was able to replicate the seal on a scroll using plain ink. I tried using chakra infused ink on the highest grade scroll to see its effect. The scroll glowed and enveloped me in a binding light. When the light died down. I was inside a room with seals glowing around its walls. The room was perfectly square and was about 10 meters on all sides with a glowing circle platform seemingly floating in the middle. I saw no doors nor any form of exit so I started getting worried. But then the Platform Glowed and a figure came out of it and touched me in the head. There was a blinding light again after that and I was back to where I was before getting teleported". I let Kurama digest the information first for a few moments.

"When I returned then. I already know all I need to know to perform the ritual and even its name as well as it's a ritual that can take me back in time. Although I never learned how it can do so. I know it was a stroke of luck that I stumbled upon that knowledge but if there's one thing I've got a lot of, then its luck. Perhaps the SealSage was an Uzumaki and thought that one of his descendants will be in the need of such technique? After all, the vault itself was told to be older than the first Uzukage". I stayed silent after that signalling that my story was over.

 **"Indeed you were lucky to find it and early at that. The Four keys of this ritual make it sure that they only one can be found each year with the seals carved on each of them so it would have taken us too long to make it had you not found it before you released me. The Rikudou Sennin told me alone without my siblings about this ritual. He said it was taught to him by a mysterious person who said that there may come a time the world would need it. After a time when my father was finally able to learn to control chakra, He realized that, that mysterious man seems to possess and was capable of using a strange kind of chakra even though he seems to be older than his mother Kaguya, which should have been theoretically impossible. As it was Kaguya who was the reason of the widespread beginning of chakra manipulation. Furthermore this man's energy reserves seem to be higher and more potent than Kaguya at her prime to"** Kurama said his side of the story.

There was a long pause.

"I see, that is strange indeed. Regardless, I shouldn't be delaying this anymore. It's inevitable. Kurama, Let's do this". I made up my mind and walked to the center of the Seal.

Right now I felt despair, loneliness, grievance and a lot of other emotions stir inside me as look at the mirror on the wall which was part of the ritual. The ritual said that there must be a mirror where I can see my face before executing the ritual. Gone was the goofy and optimistic aura I had when I was younger and still too naive. Now as I look at myself, all I see is a broken man with jaded eyes.

The only reason I'm still living and not giving up to suicide is a sliver of hope I have that makes me believe that I still have a chance to make things right and this is it.

The Ashura sage mode cloak flickered into life, formed a ram seal, focused a lot of chakra to my foot, started to chant unintelligible words all the while, the random objects littering around the room started to float and spin around me. The seals glowed magnificent bluish for a while before the Objects started to move so fast till they were only blurry things spinning around me now. The seals started to turn white in glow while the mirror previously on the wall stopped following the rhythmic spinning of the other objects and started to suddenly float towards my face till it was touching the tip of my nose.

The light was too bright to look at now as I felt myself exit my physical body. I smiled. It seems that the Ritual was a success.

When I opened my eyes again I was in a familiar place. The color white was prominent and everywhere and just as I expected, A figure in while robes and horns protruding in his head was there waiting for me.

 **"It seems that we meet again Naruto"** He started.

I smiled "Nice to see you again JiJi".

 **"It is a sad thing that we meet in this circumstance yet I am glad that you found a way, I believe the path you take next would be better"**

 _'Heh, Figures he would be up to date like always'_ I thought before speaking.

"Hey JiJi, I just noticed. How come I know that I know there should have been a sacrifice for this ritual but I didn't pay it yet? I mean of course my life is the sacrifice but you can hardly call it a sacrifice. You see, of course I'm dead in that realm I left but it's a given, after all how can I be there if I'm to go to the past so it should hardly be a sacrifice" It seems that I still retained a bit of my childish actions even after all this time. The way I talked to him even with all his serious and calm aura was like that of a child talking to an adult.

 **"Time does do wonders to the perceptions of a child; you grew up to be a smart person Naruto. Yes you are right. Your life wasn't the sacrifice and neither is it Kurama's so you should not fret"** He answered.

"But then, what's supposed to be the sacrifice?" There was a pit growing in my stomach then.

 **"Your memories"** there was a long pause after he said that.

"What! How am I supposed to change anything if I go back the same way I did? What's the purpose of these all if I can't even change a thing or save anybody? If I can't change fate then I'd rather die here than experience all that sadness again" My voice was almost shouting, not due to anger but due to shock and surprise.

 **"Do not fret, while I did say that you would be sacrificing your memories. I never what those memories would be nor did I state that your knowledge and wisdom would be taken away"** He let me calm down a bit first before continuing **. "It is impossible for you to challenge fate and thus you should change your mind-set first"**

"Huh? What does that mean? If I am going to change what is supposed to happen then how am I not challenging fate?"

 **"What happened"** He asked.

My eyes grew wide. Of course they never happened nor are they supposed to happen, it's what time travel is supposed to be about. To go back to where things haven't happened yet and follow a different path.

 **"You see, fate is a fickle thing. Not one of us knows what it truly is. What I do believe is that it is the result of our actions, provided that they were allowed to happen. Through your memories I believe that you have told the person named Neji that you would not allow fate to dictate your action and that you would win against him, yet how are you so sure that you were not fated to win against him when he himself do not know the inner workings of fate? You yourself are a living example of fate as you are the 'child of prophecy' who was meant to lead the world to either destruction or peace."**

His words strung a chord in me. Of course he is right, I was telling myself that I'd make my own fate yet I said that I would not follow fate. Funny how I never really thought what fate is and how it really works. It is of no consequence now. As long as I do what I know that is right then I shouldn't bother thinking about that fate stuff, it would only complicate stuff.

 **"It would seem that you have realized something"** He called out. I never really noticed that I was spacing out in front of him.

Speaking of spacing out "Uh JiJi, Do you know where Kurama is right now?"

 **"Yes"** He didn't seem to be planning on continuing. _'Ughhh, now I know w_ _ **here Kurama got that quirk'**_

 **"This are of the limbo is a space that exists especially for those who are about to travel in time, Of course time is of no relevance here but individuality is a great factor to entering here. In your dimension, you may be together with Kurama yet be separate at the same time. But here you cannot. You have prepared the requirements for your travel, but have you thought of his in account?"**

My eyes widened once more. "I never thought of that, Dang that fox. Why didn't he tell me?"

 **"While Kaguya did tell you that he would be letting you free without Kurama, I doubt it would be the same if he was conscious. Kurama already knew of it that is why he never told you for you would be sure to take action and it might lead to your failure"** He tried to placate me **.**

 **"It will be a hard journey; you will start again without Kurama. The ritual will only allow you to travel back until when you were at the age of ten, four years before your graduation I believe** (a/n remember that characters and events of this years are 2 years older or more advanced than in cannon) **Now I will tell you of the sacrifices you will be giving before going back so be attentive for the only memory left about those that you will forget will be the knowledge that you forgot about something.**

"Hai!" I said with conviction. ' _This is the last time I'll remember them, next time all ill know is that I forgot about something but not what I forgot, So this was the twist Kurama said to me'_ I summarized.

 **"You will retain your knowledge to the techniques you learned but not completely. Some you will remember nearly all there is needed to perform it, others you will only remember the names of them but you will always remember where you have learnt the technique but you will never remember when you learned them. This involves all arts such Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, Taijutsu, Kenjutsu and such but excludes Fuinjutsu"**

"I see, so does it mean that I would remember all about Fuinjutsu or I would forget all about it?" I hoped that it was the former than the latter.

I could feel his smile but strangely enough I couldn't see it on his face.

 **"You will be retaining all knowledge of Fuinjutsu with the exception of the Ritual which you have just performed though you might have to retrain yourself in your return for your younger self did not have such finesse and skill in calligraphy. The door to the ritual which is what you found in Uzushio will also no longer be present there once you return but it still will exist in that timeline though in a different place that even I myself do not know. Remember that the first requirement to find it is that you must not be looking for it or a variant of it which you had before and as you will be forgetting about it, you will have another chance to find it. I doubt you would, you will remember that you travelled through time but not how and you will eventually learn that the only way you did it is with Fuinjutsu. With that knowledge, you will seek it, time may let you forget about your search for it but the imprint of your search for it will be in your memory and thus deprive you of it"**

"I see, you it means I will have a chance to find it but not truly, but this also means that the others might be able to use it now that it is no longer protected in Uzushio!" I felt nervousness after realization hit me.

 **"Do you truly believe it would be found easily with its first requirement being the lack of knowledge against it? It will of course be transported into a place just as protected as Uzushio. I am sure of the fact that you are afraid that Orochimaru might find it, that will be nigh impossible as he was searching already for it or a variant of the ritual when you were still an infant. Since you will be transported at the age of 10, then there is nothing to worry about. The knowledge is not sentient but the door to it is for a part of the door is interlaced with the soul of the SealSage, it is also the figure which you saw in the Square dimension which is also the first of the four keys, the rest you already know"**

"The second key or keys were the **Rinnegan, Sharinggan, Byakugan and Tenseigan** placed in the four corners of the room, That Toneri guy from the moon wasn't affected by the Infinite Tsukiyomi but actually visited Kaguya a year after I found the other three eyes one way or another. Thinking we could defeat Kaguya. I tried to team up with him to defeat Kaguya but he underestimated Kaguya and went by himself. Of course he got beat up and Kaguya just left her to rot. I was fast to retrieve his eyes." I told the Rikudou Sennin even though I already know that he knows of it.

"The third keys were **sixteen different summoning contracts** placed in a certain pattern on the room, Seems like the realm of the summons were affected by the Infinite Tsukiyomi too." Now I realized why I was telling him of things he was sure to know of already. It wasn't for him but for me, it was my last chance to reminisce about the things I went through and I was subconsciously doing it through the form of storytelling.

"The fourth or final key was a figment of what was supposed to happen. Huh, now I see. A figment of the future to be sacrificed at the present to attain the past. A future, something that is bound or supposed to happen or exist. There was probably another way to provide it but the only thing I found was an unborn baby, a pregnant mother to be precise. I wonder who the luck guy the Mizukage did it with, that guy sure was lucky. The other people already when I was searching for the final key and only those with high jounin reserves and higher were left. I'm very sorry for the Mizukage but she was the only one I found out after probing every woman alive left with a medical jutsu for identifying a pregnant woman" I know I was speaking random things already but the Sage seem to be knowledgeable of the reason why I do so.

 **"Continuing with our topic, the next sacrifice after your knowledge of techniques is the Knowledge of the future events. You will remember that you went back to the past to change a horrible future but not the events that lead to it happening** "

 _'I see, this means my knowledge about things that already happened at the past during my ten year age will be retained'._ I nodded to him before he **continued.**

 **"The next will be your memories about people, your interactions, relations and connections to them. You will however in a way remember the type of person they were before the reset. You will know of Sasuke Uchiha's way of thinking, the infatuation that the Hinata Hyuuga had in you, the mental prowess of Nara Shikamaru and even about those who you haven't met in that timeline but you learned during your last, This way you will have another chance to introduce yourself to them in another way you fit that may be correct"**

' _These sacrifices don't seem to be that extreme; I should have a good start then even without Kurama at my side'_

 **"Now that I have told you of the sacrifices then we shall start with the final portion of the ritual. Come closer and I will put my arm to your head, you should start to feel dizzy and lose consciousness by the end of it. When you wake up, you will be back to your ten year old body. Good luck young Naruto; you are sure to need it"**

I walked closer to him. Just as he said. I started to lose consciousness. **"You will receive a gift from me as it was my responsibility to bring peace to the world yet I burdened you, the gift shall be near perfect memory so you shall find it easy to utilize the Shadow Clone jutsu its great potential. Farewell young Naruto, may the river of time and the wheel of fate be your guardians"** He said beforedarkness took over me.

* * *

 **(10 year old Naruto's Apartment)**

Young Naruto blearily opened his eyes, it seems that his body was exhausted in who knows what he did during the previous day.

He stood up and walked to his bathroom, random objects and trash littered the floor around him as he made his way. After reaching the bathroom he looked upon the mirror, face brimming with great conviction.

"I may not know what happened but this time. I'll do it, this time I won't let the world go to ruin, and I'll save everyone! Believe it".

He then walked to his bedroom again and started to change into his only available cloth other than his sleeping pyjamas, his ever lively orange jumpsuit. Upon changing his outfit, he walked towards a training ground of the academy, the only place he was currently allowed to train.

A short while after he left his house and locked his door forgetting about his bedroom window open, a masked individual entered, seemingly looking around his apartment for something new or suspicious.

"Hmmm, there doesn't seem to be anything new here to trigger a change, I wonder what's gotten to him to say those words" The masked individual walked down a bit when he stepped upon a book on the floor, he picked it up and opened it, reading a few lines here and there.

"'Ikagura's Return', a strange title for a children story it seems". He continued "What would you do if you were given the ability to return to where it all began, to where things didn't happen yet. Follow the tragic story of a woman who lived through a catastrophe and decided to go back to where it all began, to where the man of his love was still alive. A battle for the journey to the past, a quest for true love. EH! I didn't think ten year old kids like stuffs like these" The masked man put the item to his pocket.

He looked around the other items littering around the floor.

"I doubt there are any stories like this one here, Hehe! I'm pretty sure Naruto wouldn't notice a single one missing. It's not like he actively reads. Besides there is probably some steamy scenes here and he's not old enough to appreciate them" He giggled perversely.

The doorknob clicked fast and the door opened suddenly revealing a panting Naruto.

'huff, huff' He was panting as he looked inside the house.

"Crap I forgot to close the window!" Naruto exclaimed but stopped on track when he saw a masked man looking at him in alarm.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked without actually meaning it. He knew this man but as he doesn't remember his interactions on his past. He was cautious, a ninja isn't supposed to lower his guard against the unknown after all.

 _'Darn, I got too distracted'_ the masked man thought. "Hehe, I got lost to the road of life?" He scratched his hair knowing that this was going to get to get to the Hokage and look badly on his record.

-Chapter End-

* * *

SUPER ULTRA MEGA VERY NECESSARY AUTHORS NOTES:

I will be writing rules or principles of how the fanfic will work here and thus one must read with utmost attention so that they may not be confused as well as they may enjoy the story more for they will understand it on a better sense. There is no ranking and thus the order is random.

Some of these may seem within common sense though.

Principle/Rule#

1: No OC's:

As stated, there will be no original characters from me.

Any characters not in Naruto franchise are OC's but rather, reference from other sources such as anime, manga, books or TV series. I will be giving the source of such references to prevent confusion and provide clarity to readers.

All of these characters are to be rebuffed and reworked which means that their power levels, skills, abilities and sometimes personalities will be made so that they will fit into the Narutoverse

(Ex. has a bloodline that allows him to convert his body into the properties of rubber but it's not a devil fruit. GrayFullbuster has the Hyoton (Ice Release) Bloodline. KilluaZoldyck has either an lightning chakra nature or has the Storm Release...you know the rest).The purpose of this is to allow the readers to easily make up and remember all the characters of this fanfic into their minds eye thus making reading easier(and that I'm not fond of OC's, though I do not hate them)

2: No heavy romance and most certainly No Smut/Lemon:

Heavy romance means the main plot involving the (main) characters dating, kissing or doing other couple stuff. This as written will not be inside this story as I myself am not inclined too much on this area and may only compromise the story, though Light romance will be present but only so subtle that you might not even notice it.

Absolutely no Smut/Lemon! I'm sorry for those who might be hoping to read this but I cannot think of myself writing those scenes especially with myself being single. I consider sex a mutual bond only to be shared by married couple thus I deprive myself of such (no offense to those who might be offended though. Each of us has our own beliefs and morals).

3: Most characters age are increased by 2 years:

This is so that there won't be 6 year olds speaking deep philosophical stuff (though sometimes happen in real life) or thinking about true love (ironically a kids love is purer in a way) which would be too weird for me to write.

This means that Kakashi made genin at 8(orig.6) itachi was anbu at 15(orig.13 if I'm right), Sasuke was 8(orig.6) during the massacre, Hinata was 5(orig.3) during the failed kidnap event, and Naruto's class graduates at 14 but still starts to school at 6 so as to further cement the notion that they are more matured when they come out of the academy program.

4: Our Reality is different than theirs:

This means the fanfic's physics or principles do not all out agree on ours obviously. I mean who of us can have a giant beast inside our bellies? Control elements on our own, enter minds, etc... so why not just believe that their world have a different common sense to reduce the headaches that some people feel when they feel that something makes absolutely no sense. What I mean is if that lava is unable to melt ice here then so be it. There is no need to be so critical on how it should work. It works and that's that. I'm not going to be making way too absurd phenomenon's (in Narutoverse sense) happen but I just thought that it would be best to remind the readers.

5\. Narutoverse characters are remade:

This means that you should not expect them to be the same level as the anime. They would either be stronger or weaker depending on circumstances. (Ex. Ten Ten knows more complex Fuinjutsu due to some contact and increased interest with it at an earlier age, Shikamaru has more chakra capacity due to his mother being strict to his training). This will also lead to them at times knowing techniques or methods the otherwise do not have in the manga or anime.

6: There's more than what was in the anime about techniques or methods:

Some things like Fuinjutsu and Kenjutsu are not too elaborated in the series and so I will be adding my own touch to it. There will also be new Ninjutsu or so that was not present in the series but is here which is common for every fanfic out there.

7: History is the same otherwise it isn't:

Other than the characters age being 2 years higher, all of the pre-Naruto academy graduation events should otherwise be based on the manga or anime. Any past event I write differently will then be considered as this fanfic's history or should I say an AU event.

8: I won't elaborate much on how the characters dress:

I'm not too good at describing those and it's one of the reasons why I use references instead of OC's so that I don't need to think out some new outfit for anybody.

9: Most techniques if not all are to be written in English format:

This is subject to change. Most will be written like how they are normally written as such as Rasengan instead of spiralling sphere, Shiki Fuin, Hiraishin etc... You may notice that most of those that got translated are those techniques like Wind style: Great Breakthrough instead of Fuuton Daibakufu which sounds better in English.

10: Please review using accounts otherwise I may not be able to answer your questions or requests.

11: There may be more to come( This includes the chapters and rules)

 **R & R**


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other reference I used in this fanfiction. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and the references used belong to their respective owners.

 **A/N: Please remember that Naruto only remembers information about people he met but not their moments spent together as such he does not remember whether a certain person is an ally or an enemy. He does however have a great idea whether a person was an ally or not due to the information he has(ex. He can deduce Orochimaru as an enemy due to his personality as well as Tsunade being an ally). You may also notice that the POV is actually switching every now and then but with a noticeable sign. Also any other principle that is not cannon is strategically altered to fit this fanfic.**

Speech- "Naruto, where are you going?"

Thoughts- _'I wonder where Naruto is going'_

(Bold letters mean serious business or bijuu stuff, pretty sure you guys know how this works already)

* * *

 _The doorknob clicked fast and the door opened suddenly revealing a panting Naruto._

 _'huff, huff' He was panting as he looked inside the house._

 _"Crap I forgot to close the window!" Naruto exclaimed but stopped on track when he saw a masked man looking at him in alarm._

 _"Who are you?" Naruto asked without actually meaning it. He knew this man but as he doesn't remember his interactions on his past. He was cautious, a ninja isn't supposed to lower his guard against the unknown after all._

 _'Darn, I got too distracted' the masked man thought. "Hehe, I got lost to the road of life?" He scratched his hair knowing that this was going to get to get to the Hokage and look badly on his record'_

* * *

Chapter 1:

"Who are you?"

Naruto stared blankly on the masked man, noting his dog painted white mask.

' _Dog masked anbu? Hmmm. I see. This one is Hatake Kakashi a.k.a. Sharingan no Kakashi, Copy Ninja Kakashi, Friend Killer. Obtained his Sharingan from his fallen teammate, Lazy Individual, High Jounin level. By the looks of what I could remember on him, it seems he is a powerful individual. I wonder if he was a friend or just a comrade in arms. Since he is wearing an anbu outfit, this means he is one of the anbu assigned to monitor me. If I pull my cards right I may be able to get something from this early meeting of us_ ' Naruto thought while looking at the man in front of him.

"Hehe, I got lost to the road of life?" The masked man scratched the back of his head.

 _'_ _That's the lamest excuse I ever heared'_ Naruto thought before asking. "Why are you here mister? Didn't you know it is rude to enter somebody else's house without permission?"

"Oh? Is it?" _'Hmm, I don't remember Naruto knowing about proper manners'._

 _'_ _Crap! The ten year old me didn't care much about manners. What do I do? what do I do?'_ Naruto was internally panicking now before an idea popped into his head. " Oh yeah! JiJi said it to me"

 _'_ _Figures he would only remember proper manners when it benefits him'_ the masked man sighed.

"The Hokage actually gave me a spare key to check out on secret whether you were keeping your place neat and proper. We don't really have a lot of ten year old kids given their own apartment so the Hokage wanted to know whether or not you were responsible enough to own one and by the looks of it you aren't exactly doing good on this evaluation" the masked man reasoned.

"Oh well I was just going out to buy cleaning materials, JiJi gave me money so you just got in the wrong time." _'two can play a game of lies_ ' Naruto internally smirked while he was innocently looking at the man outwardly.

"Well it seems that I no longer have a reason to stay. Ja neh!" the man waved at Naruto before walking to the door.

"Neh, Mister. Isn't that book on your pocket mine?" Naruto called out just as the man stepped outside of his house.

The masked individual didn't answer and vanished on a flurry of leaves. _' He's more perceptive than I thought he is, this meeting could have been better but it could have been worse too.'_

Naruto let the book be forgotten.

After the man left, Naruto locked the door and decided to clean up the mess on his apartment before leaving thinking that there may be a chance that somebody would actually be sent by the Hokage to check up on the condition of his living place. He waited for at least ten minutes before he outwardly tried to sense his surroundings, keyword 'tried'. After all the basic steps of the **Senjutsu** involved sensing your environment and trying to 'be one with it' so it boils down to the fact that to perfect **Senjutsu,** one must have a good enough grasp of chakra sensing. In short, a Senjutsu practitioner is a sensor first before he becomes a specialist

Naruto was internally having a string of thoughts while doing this.

 _'_ _It seems that my chakra capacity is larger than when I was 'last' ten year old as expected. After all, half of chakra is mental or spiritual energy which probably was taken back to my travel here. Ughhh this also made my chakra control go worse as it is imbalanced. Regardless I now have a better grasp of how to improve my chakra control so it should even out the imbalance a bit. I may not have lost all knowledge needed to know about Senjutsu but it seems that there are a few things I do not remember of, my sensing is good enough to notice at least two anbu nearby which include Hatake so I should not be worried for now, their chakra do not feel like those of sensors so that is a good plus too'_ Naruto noticed that the influx of nature chakra entering him starting to increase in pace and decided that he should cut it off lest he be turned into stone.

Naruto got a surprise when he opened his eyes, he didn't expect himself to land on his mindscape this early. He strolled through the sewers inside his mind seemingly being lead to a certain place. After an unknown amount of time, he arrived in a dead end with bars of prison way taller than him. Two feral eyes looked at him in a curious fashion.

 **"** **Who are you?** " the creature in front of him bellowed.

Naruto was surprised. The fox with little that he remembered was a prideful and arrogant creature but was also knowledgeable. He remembered that the fox was supposed to be lucid before he got sealed into him so it should not be a question that he would know of him. He critically thought of a way to answer the fox while learning about the reason of the fox's inquiry.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, What's yours mister with giant eyes?"

He ignored Naruto's question and narrowed his eyes before walking forward a few steps and finally revealing his whole stature. **"The fact that you do not possess a sliver fear while seeing me in this form even if barred by a prison suggests that you are not that naïve human who once was my prison. Now tell me who you really are or you will be in for a surprise"**

It was of course an empty threat. The only way that the fox could harm me during this stage of the seal was if my emotions are on turmoil and especially when I am angry. I was nowhere near angry so the risk of it harming me was minimal. _'This is a huge risk but the benefits of it out weights its disadvantages should my plan be successful, his facial reaction tells me that he is still not capable of reading through the depths of my mind at this stage of the seal'_

"Kurama" Naruto paused a bit for a dramatic effect as he saw the fox eyes widen considerably "Is that your name?" Naruto started his plan.

 **"** **I see, my deductions lead to the point that this is made to constantly send a sliver of my chakra to you allowing you to absorb my chakra slowly till I vanish. It is a good seal but not quite, while this seal does siphon my chakra slowly, it does not prevent me from gathering more. You knowing my name is probably due to my chakra sent to you, it is only a speculation of mine but those chakra probably held a little of my memories. Figures that human father of yours would find a way to utilize me other than simply siphoning my chakra. He probably planned for you to become my companion or ally"**

 _'_ _A good conclusion but he missed a lot of key information, I wasn't surprised that he missed the truth but his deductions aren't half bad either. I couldn't identify his emotions with his facial reaction and I believe that neither could he'_

"Somehow I remember you, I don't know how but I do. A few terms like Ninshu, Asura and Rikudou Sennin pops out of my mind whenever I remember your name" _'I hope he takes the bait'_ Naruto added as an afterthought.

 **"** **A strange turn of events. Something is clearly at work here. You are not telling the whole truth, I do not know why and I also do not like facing the unknown. Be gone, I shall be pondering about this recent events"**

The fox was clearly not mad but he seems irritated for a reason. Naruto suddenly found myself outside my mindscape, strange that I never knew the fox could kick me out of my own mind yet not be able to read it.

Upon being kicked out of his subconscious, the fox pondered. **'Those terms he said. Could it be? Could he be part of that cycle that the Rikudou Sennin foretold about his progeny? There is truly something missing here, the whole truth shall be revealed should I learn of that. If only this seal allowed me to read a part of his mind, perhaps I can devise a way for him to increase my connection to him. Hmmm, am I actually thinking of being connected to a human? Ha! The great nine tailed fox being outsmarted by a mere human. That Yondaime planned this far huh. Regardless there is nothing to be lost here** **other than my pride, that kid is too smart for his age so I am sure he would never dare to point that out "**

* * *

 **(Outside Naruto's Mindscape, Inside his apartment)**

Naruto was now sure that the two anbu outside would not be able to sense his chakra spike should he create only a few clones as none of them seem to be good sensors. He performed the necessary handseals for the shadow clone jutsu and made 4 identical copies of himself. He walked close to the four and inspected them.

"They are actually quite good, only minute differences that wouldn't be noticed lest a Jounin actually tried to look at it. Now that I've covered and closed the windows, there's nobody to notice that clones are helping me to clean this house. Ughh! It would have probably took a day without them. Now I'm sure everyone of you already know what to do! Let's go clean this place shiny"

Naruto's clone unlike his past early age was actually very obedient to him now. They scrambled around doing their own part. These clones obtained the same wisdom and knowledge that Naruto has so it was bound for them to be the same as him. Naruto was no longer a lazy person and neither was he goofy, with those mannerisms gone. His clones are now way more efficient than they were before.

Four hours later and Naruto looked at the tidy apartment in all sides.

"You did good guys" Naruto said to his clones before they nodded and poofed out of existence.

 _'_ _So my mental capacity did increase exponentially. I don't remember everything they did but there is almost no backlash with four clones lasting four hours. I normally was just able to let them stay of at least 15 minutes or suffer a mild headache. If my memory serves right though I don't remember what things I made them do before the reset'_ (a/n this is repeatedly pointed out to emphasize the point of memories he retained and slowly allow it to be absorbed into the story).

Naruto then removed the cover he put on the window but left it closed. He looked at the clock then to the calendar and saw that it was already 2 o'clock in afternoon. His calendar was on September and there was a cross in the 21st date, Saturday, with a kanji of return written on it. He got curious and observed it before touching it. It glowed a bluish hue before vanishing into nothingness.

"It's too late to late to go to the academy now, besides people would find it strange that I would go to the academy without classes especially with my past actions. The best way to spend this time would probably to reacquaint myself with calligraphy for Fuinjutsu".

Naruto looked around for his paint brushes and scrolls. While he wasn't really a Fuinjutsu practitioner when he was younger he did have a knack for painting random things a few times. That didn't develop though as he realized that pranks made him feel better as people gave him even the lightest attention. Contrary to popular belief on all Jinchūriki, Naruto wasn't physically molested or harmed; the Third Hokage's law prevented that. He did get the emotional distress that most Jinchūriki received which was ignorance of their existence and people actually telling others to not accompany him in any form.

When he found out his painting equipment, He smiled. He had used plain ink before but not chakra infused ink which is what was used in creating seals. To non Uzumaki fuin practitioner, plain ink would have not sufficed. They must have been infused with chakra during their creation for them to be useable for Fuinjutsu purposes but to an Uzumaki, that was a minor setback. He performed a set of handseals and finished with a ram seal, his index finger glowing purplish before he dipped that finger to a bottle of ink leaving the other two untouched. The ink glowed the same color with his finger before they finally settled to their original dark color.

 _'_ _Now they're more potent than those sold in the stores'_ Naruto thought.

Most Shinobi equipment stores sell oil based inks for Shinobi use by infusing them with chakra before they stabilize, while civilian stores sell plant or animal blood based ink, this is due to those animal blood being sold as most of their parts are used or consumed and their blood with only one purpose left, that being ink. The Shinobi of course knew that plant and animal blood based ink already have chakra on them as such can be used for Fuinjutsu easier but they found them hard to stabilize as these chakra are not the same in composition or property than on humans so they decided to just settle on the plain oil based ink and infused them with human chakra.

'It was good that my ancestors guarded this secret ink infusion technique. We don't know what would have happened should they fall to the wrong arms. The animal based fuin ink varies from double to four times better quality than oil based depending on which animal they were taken from, with the two kinds of chakra available on them, they would gain unique properties that can boost their already stronger capabilities. Plant based fuin ink though do not provide excess boosts other than increasing their stability lowering the chance of failure, the Uzumaki theorized this to the fact that plants actually are less locomotive in their lifetime though it was never confirmed. The **Chakra-Ink Infusion** technique makes the users index finger glow purplish but the glow of the ink varies depending on their properties, Green marks it as plant based. It just glowed plainly if it was un-infused oil based ink, and the quality of the animal based ink vary in glow color from **orange-red-purple-blue-prism colored(** combined) with ascending quality depending on the color`

Naruto opened one of his clean scrolls and started to make the fuin rank scanner seal. It took ten minutes to make. The seal wasn't too crude yet nowhere near perfect but it would do. He performed the necessary handseals and slapped his hands on the scroll. The scroll didn't glow like one would expect but the seals moved in a circular fashion and hovered in the air all around Naruto, seemingly observing him. Then they entered his skin from through his hands still slapped on the scroll and crawled all around covering a lot of portion of his body with most of them found in his head before glowing a faint hue for at least ten minutes. Then the seals exited his body the same fashion they entered and started to form a pattern on the floor.

"Level 1 Grandmaster? Hmmm. My level actually lowered two levels? I wonder how that happened. The seals are faded which means my knowledge belong to the Grandmaster level yet my calligraphy is greatly lacking, Regardless this shouldn't make deter me a bit. I'll be sure to be back at my original level before a few years, preferably before graduation as I have more things to do then" He said as he interpreted the results of the scan.

"Yosh!, I still have two bottles of plain ink. Ill practice with a few clones till I run out of ink then I'll call it a day" Naruto made five clones and practiced calligraphy for two hours before he run out of scrolls with half a bottle of ink still left.

"Well, I didn't take that into account" His stomach growled in a funny way and he looked sheepish to himself, his clones dispersed themselves just as he said "looks like I'll have to give **Ichiraku** a visit"

Naruto stood up and fixed his room once more by removing the fuin equipment littering on the floor. You can't be too lazy and give all the basic works to your clones after all; this would leave them to develop a bad habit of disobeying you. It was one of the things he learned during his 'past'.  
He locked his door before leaving and walked to the Ichiraku stand.

* * *

 **(Inside Ichiraku's)**

The sky was already an orange hue while he was walking towards the stand and the people were busy scurrying around doing their own business to notice him so it was an uneventful walk. There was no customers when he entered the stand so he just sat to one of his chairs before calling out.

"One miso ramen please" He called out.

"Coming up Naruto, I'll prepare a dozen more to be sure" a voice of an old man answered. A minute later a pretty girl on her teens walked to Naruto and gave his miso ramen, smiling while she did so.

"What's up Naruto? You haven't been here for a week" The pretty brunette asked. She then gave Naruto another bowl as Naruto seemingly finished his first after a few moments.

Naruto ingested his food before answering "There's this new topic Mizuki sensei was teaching and I was enjoying it so much that I had to attend even when I normally don't do so, the topic was finished on Friday so I should be back to skipping classes this Monday" Naruto was grinning as he was speaking, he was lying but he figured there was little chance that Ayame would find out about it.

"That's bad Naruto, you should stop doing that or you won't learn a thing" She scolded Naruto. Naruto was already on his fourth bowl even though Ayame didn't recall when he got those.

"Gotcha, Ayame-nee. I'm going to leave early today I suddenly feel sleepy"

"Okay but don't skip classes again Naruto, understood? It's for you own good" She said and Naruto nodded before walking out of the stall.

Ayame stared to the seven empty bowls on the table Naruto just left. The payment just next to it, she never saw Naruto put the money though.

'Sigh, he eats faster than that cute spikey haired masked guy. I wonder if they are related somehow. Hmm, I also wonder when that guy would pick up the book he left a while ago"

"Ayame, bring those bowls here and wash them, the other customers should be coming around in just a while!" The old man's voice called out again.

"Coming" She picked up the bowls and payment and brought them to his father"

* * *

 **(Narutos Bedroom)**

Naruto plopped to his bed, feeling utterly exhausted even though he didn't do anything greatly exhausting.

 _'_ _Must be due to the transport, I still haven't gotten a proper rest since I arrived'_ he thought before letting darkness claim him.

* * *

 **(Naruto's Mindscape)**

Naruto opened his eyes and looked around. He was transported immediately to the cage of Kurama so he concluded that the fox had called out to him on purpose.

 _'_ _I hope he took the bait, I'm way too tired for a scolding'_ Naruto mused.

 **"** **I have come to a preposition, human. Increase my freedom a bit by lowering the seals and I shall allow you to use a little of my chakra with permission, this chakra that is to be given to you will not be toxic unlike if you forcefully took my chakra or took it during emotional duress. It will however decrease your emotional control if you are not able to control them freely. The little bit of freedom granted to me shall allow me to talk to you even when you are not inside this mindscape and probably enough to give a peak to what you are thinking"** The kyuubi spoke to me in a normal manner. He seems to have more to tell so I waited after a bit of his pause.

 **"** **I know that somehow you have the mind of an adult. An experienced Shinobi to be perhaps. The pathways of these sewers are wider than they should be this means that you are more knowledgeable and open minded. The lights are no longer as deem as they were before, signalling that you have more idea to the things happening to you like an adult should. The bars of this prison are harder, more solid and tighter than they should be meaning your mental capabilities are refined to near their finest. The waters of this sewer are not murky as they should be, instead they are clear but only look murky due to the floor reflecting their color, this implies that your wisdom is great and you have great clarity unclouded by emotions. Jinchūriki are unlike normal humans, their mindscapes are bound to become like sewers for its main purpose is to prevent other mindwalkers from meeting us."**

With each sentence he finished, my eyes grew wider. I knew he was knowledgeable but I didn't think he had this kind of extensive knowledge. He sure lived a long time and didn't put it into waste.

 **"** **Your sewer mindscape is almost like how a Jinchūriki who completed his bond with his bijuu looks like. That is even if I never had contact with you other than the during the day of the sealing. This emotional capability should not be present in a ten year old kid but an adult who has had his fair share of battles and lived through them. You of course as sure to know about these seals as you recently used a fuin rank scanner, They did scan your head and travelled here before out, I have a way or two to display the results in this chamber. So what do you say? 'Grandmaster!' "** He grinned as he finished then looked at me as he waited for my answer.

 _'_ _I didn't plan for this but it's better than the worst case scenario'_ I thought internally then spoke. "You do not seem to be same as how they portray you to be, you are way more knowledgeable and rational than the mindless beast they tell you are. I accept the preposition, I am a grandmaster right now and I shall grant you more space to move around. I should take a maximum of week before I regain muscle memory of perfect calligraphy with the use of clones and another two days before the preparations to seal is done, I also thank you for not asking me to reveal to you how I suddenly gained great knowledge. I am sure that you already know that you will have to earn my trust before I tell you of everything there is" I finished with a face with politeness yet somehow blank.

 **"** **I have treated properly as this is a negotiation as thus both parties must be in accord, however another factor is the words that you said that linger in your mind together with my name. Ninshu, Ashura, Rikudou Sennin; those words are confirmation that you are somehow connected to the Sage who I greatly respect. There is a cycle of rebirth foretold by him that would happen to his sons. Your calmness and mental capability as well as those words you told me are a confirmation to that reasoning that you may be the reincarnation of Ashura and awakened his chakra."** He was speaking in a calm manner, this confirmed to me that his respect to the Sage was actually sky high for him to speak to a mere human who he normally hates greatly with calmness.

 **"** **Your chakra laced on that Scanning Seal provided a lot of traces of Ashura's chakra, it is why I am sure of my theory. You may be not him but you are still a progeny of the great sage who I revered as my father. You have gained my respect but know that trust is another thing.. Your mind is exhausted due to method I used to tamper with that fuin rank scanner, it is creating an illusion that your body is tired and needs rest. I have nothing more to speak to you now, you may leave and rest"**

'Jackpot! He took the bait! Now I know why my body suddenly felt tired. Things are sure to go on a better pace now'

Naruto felt very happy when he let himself leave his mindscape and drift to unconsciousness.

* * *

 **(Time skip: 10 days later)**

His room was locked and covered on all sides so that no surprise visits would come. During the week of preparation, he left his clones on random hidden places to train on calligraphy and mastered it on the target date he set. He also finished creating the seals to be added to the seal already present on him as his part of the bargain to the kyuubi. He couldn't just rip the seal a bit as this would result to either his mother or father appearing to him though he didn't remember who would or if it was both of them at the same time, and he still wasn't prepared for that. He also didn't need to study the seal as he already remembered all he needed to know about it.

During his week on his school, He started to change his demeanour towards everybody so that they would not be surprised of his actions in the long run. _'Let them create their own perception of me but control what that perception is and there shall be no problems'_ He thought.

' _I shouldn't just let them underestimate me too much. If a kid not given proper training and performed badly on his academy suddenly acts and moves like a prodigy of the century, then that would be too suspicious and any ninja worth his salt would grow suspicious of me especially with my status in the village. I'll reveal a bit of my ability just enough so that they wouldn't be surprised later on'_ He remembered his thought before entering the academy this week. His classmates didn't notice much of this though he did get a raised eyebrow from two of his classmates, that being Shikamaru and Shino. He figured they were just surprised since he stopped asking Sakura for dates, He didn't hate Sakura but just found her acting too immature. He noticed Hinata looking at him secretly and blushing at times and figured it was childhood infatuation, He had more things to look for than Puppy love so he left it at that. He found it easy to apply the changes that are somehow major like not asking Sakura for dates and not asking Sasuke for a match as he was generally ignored by his classmates when he wasn't being made fun of before and that was the same as now.

Naruto unclothed himself and left only his boxers on. Using the same handseals he performed on an unknown number of times in the past and made six clones giving them more chakra than should be for them to last longer. Naruto himself cannot perform the sealing as he needs to be unmoving during the duration which was supposed to take a minimum of an hour, he was used to meditating for longer amounts of time so this wasn't something new to him. He was tampering with a grandmaster level seal, as such all precautions must be taken.

"Boss, were going to start the sealing, please sit in the center of the array" The clone said.

This was also another precaution he made to remove any chances of chakra leaking out. A bijuu's 'chakra is so potent that a drop of it can be sensed by even those Genin level Sensor-Nin's. The walls were already littered with seals on them. And he made sure that there were no nearby anbu as well as it was the time where almost no people would notice his action. This was during 4:30 in the afternoon, just as he finished school and the time where most people were busy doing who knows what. When Naruto said he would take precautions, he meant it and followed through his plans, even putting a clone just outside his room to pretend that he was eating should somebody else enter his apartment.

He walked to the center of the array and sat in a lotus position. "I'm ready!" He said.

The clones got to their work with full concentration.

* * *

Surely enough it took near an hour, or to be exact, fifty four minutes since the start to finish the first step of sealing, which was finalizing the seal array on Naruto's body.

"The first part is finished" The two clones assigned to write the seals stood and left Naruto's side. Just as they were in front of the other clones who were just observers till now, they put their arms to the former observer clones and used a technique **(Chakra Transference Jutsu)** to transfer their remaining chakra to the other clones as they are of no use anymore. The technique itself was a C-rank one but was only commonly known by medical practitioners. Naruto premade the other clones as he could not move during the duration of the process unless it was the final part which required himself to perform.

The four other clones walked around Naruto surrounding him a square pattern.

"The second part will commence now!" they proclaimed but not too loud as it was unnecessary to do so.

They performed a string of handseals and slapped their palms to the edges of the sealing array and this time shouted **"Compress!"**. One of the precautions involved a **Silencing Seal** put around the room especially put for the part of the process..

They slapped their palms to on their respective edge of the array. Each side their palms landed on had circles that held nothing in their middle unlike most part of the sealing array. This array had another purpose other than suppressing bijuu chakra, and these empty circles were especially made so that they could channel their chakra that would connect and affect Naruto.

Naruto's body who was once littered with seals from his abdomen to his face and back started to crawl around in an organized fashion and seemingly compressed in the middle of the seal in his abdomen forming a kanji 由. The kanji itself meant freedom and reason at the same time. **"Disperse!"** the clones shouted once more. The kanji then dispersed by combining itself to the circular pattern of the seal in his stomach. After this was done, they informed the original and let themselves disperse leaving Naruto alone in the room.

"The final part will now commence!" He said to no one but only for aesthetical reasons. Another string of handseals and finished in a tiger seal then opened his eyes which was closed until now. Face brimming with determination he shouted **"Activate!"** Embers of bijuu chakra started to flicker out of his body giving him a mesmerizing aura. These embers didn't last long as they got absorbed into the array being their primary purpose.

Finally the seal on his stomach glowed till it finally stabilized and stopped glowing.

Naruto looked around his mindscape and nodded to himself, feeling satisfied with the primary results of his efforts.

The sewer looking maze was still here as it was designed so without any changes, this maze was especially made as the first layer of defence for any Jinchūriki so he left it untouched. After all any Jinchūriki worth their salt are capable of skipping through this part and entering directly to the 'cage' part of their mindscape. These were made in defence for those pesky mind walkers that try to meddle with the minds of Jinchūriki. Not that they could actually harm the bijuu as they were of course the final level of defence but it was just a way to deter their efforts and remove the weaker ones by trapping them in the minds of the Jinchūriki whose prisoner would then swoop down and eat their consciousness should their guards be lowered. The only exception to this were those Uchiha's as they were capable of bypassing all levels of defence a Jinchūriki's mind has upon reaching the higher stages of their cursed Sharingan. Naruto walked around till he found the door to the cage and opened it.

He was blinded by a bright light and took a few moments to compose himself and observe his surroundings.

 **"** **Impressive, to be capable of devising a way to increase our connection exponentially without breaking the seal, This method allows me to channel up to four tails of chakra to you without you going berserk. Being a grandmaster really is a 'grand' feat for a seal practitioner. The scenery is also good, grasslands huh? Is this intentionally put in hopes that it would calm me down most of the times."**

True enough as the fox said. The scenery involved a vast amount of grassland with colored flowers littering here and there in a random fashion to create a soothing environment. The only thing remnant of the seal made to imprison the fox was a long line in the form of seals separating one side of the grassland to the foxes side which was actually his 'jail'. There was also trees and rivers on the other side of the seal. Farther away were mountains that seemed real. The area looked so vast and farthest side of it could not be seen by the naked eye. The mental boost that Naruto received from the Sage could be utilized in more than one way it seems.

 **"** **I am satisfied for now. You shall now be able to hear a few words from me here and then to help you in whatever journey you are trying to embark on. Unless you have anything to speak of which I do not think you have. Leave me alone for now and let me bask in this artificial sunlight and freedom that you provided."** The fox then ran to the seemingly endless plain with grace and power exuding from him with each leap taken.

 _'_ _whoa he actually looks elegant when he doesn't have that grumpy look he always shows'_ Naruto thought before starting to exit his mindscape.

 **"** **I heard that, and I look powerful not elegant you ninggen!"** Naruto heard the fox speak before he exited his mindscape and returned to the real world.

 _`I should have known he'd hear that, I did give the seal that feature too. *Sigh* I hope this doesn't break our growing relationship'_ Naruto thought just as he came back to the real world and started to clean up the mess from the sealing process.

 **"** **I heard that too, and we don't have a relationship. We have a 'bond' due to the sage, not a relationship"** a voice spoke from inside his head.

 _'_ _Is there even a difference in that?, ughh forget about it. I'll just finish cleaning up this mess and head to sleep. This seal tampering took a lot on me and my body should adjust itself for a while. I'll probably be asleep all day tomorrow but that's a small thing to sacrifice'_ He hurriedly finished fixing things and laid on his bed before sleeping.

* * *

 **(Timeskip: 2 month)**

So far Naruto liked what was happening as his progress was getting better. The fox wasn't too much to handle as he expected him to be but was rather a quite companion. He only spoke every time Naruto did something outright wrong in his training with chakra as the fox clearly had a lot of knowledge about the inner workings of chakra.

Naruto's physical growth was progressing in a good pace too. The fox knew little about human anatomy as he isn't one himself so he left Naruto to train on his own in this area. While clones were unavailable to Naruto outside his own domain as he still hasn't found a way to create an alibi as to how he learnt it. He decided that he would just create a situation for him to be 'luckily' learn it from another individual and he had the perfect idea to who that person was how he'll make Naruto learn. He needed to use those clones as even though they couldn't increase his physical fitness, they were able to give him muscle memory which makes memorizing a lot of physical things easier. The clones made Naruto the best kinaesthetic learner there ever lived or so he thought.

* * *

 **(Timeskip: Three years later: Second month of Naruto's last year in the** **)**

(Academy Teachers Room)

The others look on alarm as five masked individuals entered the premise and walked towards a specific instructor.

"Touka Mizuki, You are under arrest for the act of treason" Five anbu spoke as they cornered the academy instructor.

"What! What do you mean treason? What did I do wrong? I didn't do anything wrong?" he was now panicking both internally and externally . _'Did they find out about the letters I sent to Orochimaru?'_

"You are to be brought down to the Hokage first before the T&I as you have an issue pertaining information that should have only be available to the Hokage and the village elders. Come with us in peace and there will be no harm….for now" The Cat masked anbu in the front spoke in an authoritative manner.

Mizuki looked around and noticed the looks everyone was giving before he finally decided to follow the anbu. The Hokage seemed to be an understanding person, perhaps he can fool the old man to let him scot off.

* * *

 **(Hokage's Room)**

"Touka Mizuki,26 year old, Chunnin of the konohagakure, academy instructor. Currently in a relationship with Kane Tsubaki. Orphan with no familial ties left" The Hokage read a little of the information found in the file for the said man.

"Why is it that you were found in possession of some scrolls, techniques written to them that are supposed to be hidden in the scroll of forbidden seals?" The Hokage asked, face blank with emotion.

Naruto had been seen by Inu(Kakashi) performing shadow clone jutsu during one of his training at the academy training field. Though his constant training was something that he started doing a while ago already as such it was of no surprise to the Inu during his guard duty to the child, he did get quite the shock when he saw the kid perform the technique splendidly.

Kakashi had then already met Naruto a lot of times without his mask as the Hokage permitted him to be with contact with Naruto during certain circumstances, such circumstances can be counted with one hand and he believed that that B-rank Kenjutsu was another thing to be part of those.

When Kakashi asked Naruto as to where he had gotten such a 'cool' technique. Naruto told Kakashi that he had found the scroll with a lot of information for a lot of cool jutsu's dropped by a teacher and decided to pick it up. Curiosity got over him and he opened it where upon opening it decided that he try out the techniques before giving it back to the instructor. Naruto stated he has already been in the possession of the scroll for a while now and mastered a number of the techniques.

Kakashi didn't ask about how long it took it for him to master such jutsu's no how many he had mastered but requested the scroll, which Naruto gave with no protest telling Kakashi it was his responsibility now to return the object. Kakashi was in for a shock when he saw the information written in the scroll which was way too nearby complete that it alarmed Kakashi. The scroll immediately reached the hand of the Kage and lead to this incident not longer.

"We also had your how searched for and found out a lot of other similar seals that was supposed to be hidden to those who are lesser than anbu level, upon closer inspection we have found an even more alarming news. You have been sending letters to Orochimaru, this would imply that you are a spy. A lot of information found in your house wasn't well hidden, perhaps you thought of our security being lax. The total of the information about this village under your hands Mizuki, are enough to not only imprison you for life but execute you on the spot. However, we must find out how much you have already diverged to Orochimaru as such you will be interrogated before execution" The Hokage said with finality.

"But why did you bring me here first? I don't remember having those scrolls in my house you can ask Tsubaki. Im innocent here! please listen to me" Mizuki was pleading now

"We have already taken tsubaki in account and approached her in an inconspicuous way so as to not alert her of your condition. She has stated that she has never been in your house and you were meeting on her apartment most of the times if not on the village streets to have a date. She has passed the evaluation as innocent and without connection to your treason that is why you are without companion here. More people have been asked but all accounts lead to the fact to you had been living alone and nobody has entered your house other than another individual. One which is already under supervision now as he is still under a mission outside of the village. You have been brought so that I may see in your eyes whether you were a traitor or not, and that you may have had another reason why this even came to place. Now the fact that you do not deny your connections to Orochimaru implies that this has been for naught" The Hokage paused as he looked at Mizuki's defeated form.

 _'_ _How did this all happen. I knew they could find those reports for Orochimaru if they looked hard enough. But where did those scrolls come from? They wouldn't even believe a word I say and would just read my mind. There's no way out of this and the chakra suppression the anbu put to me are already in full effect. I should have taken action earlier!_ '

Mizuki would then be brought to the T&I where they would find the same conclusion, gathering all needed by them and bring fast execution to the man. A man with this much information cannot be left alive as another faction might decide to recruit him and device a plan to use such information selfishly.

Naruto had already done all preparations and made sure to not have any flaws to his plan. Mizuki was a person who Naruto remembered to be outright a traitor and somebody who sought power in any way possible. He noticed the strange looks he game him over his time on the academy most of which were actually sneers that held ill intent, and the fact that Kurama pointed out the man to be having more than enough negative emotions lingering around him and stinks of death was another factor added too. It took Naruto a year to perfect and put his plan into action. Now he could use shadow clone without problem and a few other techniques.

-Chapter End-

* * *

Authors Note:

Both prologue and first chapter were devised in a way to prepare the upcoming chapters which was why they were slower paced than what is commonly liked. The pace of the story will gradually grow then from this point as Naruto exits the academy next chapter.

Any corrections to grammar or plot would have been more proper to be sent on PM's and comments on the chapter of course would be suited to the review section.

Anyway your reviews may motivate me a lot.

 **R &R**


	3. Chapter 2: prowess and bonds

Chapter 2: Prowess and Bonds

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other reference I used in this fanfiction. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and the references used belong to their respective owners.

* * *

 **A/N: I thank everyone who gave warm reviews to my first two chapters. I got caught up with my student life so the update got delayed a bit. Also pertaining about this chapter on the team formation part, you will be hearing familiar names from other anime's but this does not necessarily mean that they will be receiving a huge part for the story. As I stated on the first chapter, the true purpose of using them instead of OC's is that people will find it easier to manifest their image on the readers minds(though I might give them a role if I receive enough requests for them to be included, you must not forget too that they will be revamped to fit into the Naruto verse). Also, the references used will be written on the end of the chapter in case some of you aren't familiar of them.**

Speech- "Naruto, where are you going?"

Thoughts- _'I wonder where Naruto is going'_

(Bold letters mean serious business or bijuu stuff, pretty sure you guys know how this works already)

* * *

 **Chaper 2: Prowess and Bonds**

 **(Timeskip: Naruto's last year at the academy, Location: Naruto's bedroom)**

Naruto took off his shirt and plopped to his bed after a long day of intense training; sweat dripping from his whole form. He reminisced about the things he had been doing since his stay on this timeline.

It had been long time since Mizuki's demise. Naruto had done a lot of things since then, especially, gradually changing the perception of everyone to him. At first Naruto had it hard as even the third Hokage found it strange that Naruto would develop traits and quirks that he hadn't had before, but since he was still gradually visiting the Hokage and telling him the latest events that happened to him, the Hokage eventually got used to it. Of course Naruto mostly lied to what he told the Hokage though they were mostly half lies as the Hokage would no doubt notice it should Naruto state an outright lie.

Gradually, Naruto noticed that the presence of the **anbu** guards watching over him dwindle in number, their scheduled shifts slowly lowering till the time came that he could only feel them was a few hours per week, probably just to check up if there were any huge change that happened to him. Naruto had noticed a few of his observers have a different chakra pattern than those normally stationed ones, they also do not seem to be associated with his regular guards as Naruto never felt both make contact with one another in any form after long observation in fact, this one's seemed to wait for the other to leave before getting closer to Naruto. These ones were harder to sense as it required Naruto to focus more to notice them. Though they were harder to sense, Naruto did learn that their chakra seemed to be less potent or powerful than those regular anbu. As Naruto was also a **Fuin** specialist, he also learned that these individuals stealth were further enhanced through the use of seals, He wouldn't even be amazed if the regular anbu's didn't notice these different ones. Naruto hypothesized that they specialized in stealth and reconnaissance than actual combat. These individuals did stop visiting him when Naruto 'accidentally' told the third Hokage that he saw strange masked people looking at him from trees during a few times of strolling through the village.

During the years that passed by, Naruto had found secure places to store accumulated data he gathered throughout his stay. This secure place being Orochimaru's hidden bases throughout Konoha. While the third did find most of Orochimaru's bases, those were the snake's main bases, which are now guarded as such unusable for Naruto. His other bases who one could consider as minors weren't found though. Naruto took his time securing these bases with seals to prevent unnecessary scuffles should there be an accidental discovery of them, now; Naruto had no worry of even anbu ranked ninjas discovering 'his' bases. Of course Naruto wasn't sure if Orochimaru had half of a mind to return to these bases, but if he did, then the snake would be in for a surprise.

Naruto's knowledge about various figures of the elemental nations didn't go stagnant too. His near perfect memory was put to use with the help of shadow clones. Though his information was limited as he had little source about the other nations, he didn't plan on leaving it this way. The moment he stepped out of the village legally would be the moment he would start gathering more data. Naruto had researched about the workings of chakra during his previous timeline but he didn't think of doing research about the people of that time as well as the workings of politics. Naruto may not remember why he didn't do so but it was due to his focus being directed at either freeing his fellow Shinobi from the Infinite Tsukiyomi or finding a way to defeat Kaguya and so he didn't learn much about other topics of interest.

Naruto's musings was put to a stop when he heard a knock to the door of his apartment. His seals didn't detect anything dangerous about the person on the door so he went to the door and opened it revealing a fourteen year old blond girl in the form of Ino Yamanaka who got wide eyed when he saw Naruto at the door(a\n: just a reminder that the characters are two year older than the cannon).

 _'_ _Crap! I forgot to put my shirt on! Given her facial reaction, her pheromones are probably overworking themselves. It's a good thing we no longer have classes left as we are just waiting for the graduation day or else this is going to give me quite a headache. The fact that this girl in front of me is a well-known gossip isn't going to help too'_ Naruto mentally berated himself of his carelessness.

"Hehe, I didn't know you were this ripped Naruto, you know you should have worn less bulky clothes, that way we would have another eye candy to look at other than Sasuke" Ino looked at Naruto from head to foot nodding at herself when she finished doing so.

Naruto stared straight at Ino with a poker face and spoke.

"Weren't you here for another reason?" Naruto didn't have time for this kind of things. He was tired and had plans to finish a seal he'd been experimenting for a while now after resting.

"Oh right! I almost forgot about that. Iruka-sensei said the graduation exams would be moved forward to next Friday since the finished the preparations earlier than scheduled. Most of the students are already informed and accepted the new date so you should come or otherwise you would be forced to repeat another year at the academy"

"I see, that's a good thing. Thank you for informing me. Now I'll be excusing myself as I'm going to get my well-deserved rest after a long day of training"

Ino didn't have the chance to reply as Naruto closed the door to his apartment. His footsteps walking away from the door heard by the blond girl who puffed her cheeks as she lost her chance on hooking up with newly discovered 'hot' looking guy. She, like most of the academy teens were looking up for relationships as it was believed to be part of the normal life of a growing adolescent.

"Sigh, another chance lost. I wonder when my love life would start. There's no way I'm going to go on the crazy work of a ninja without a love life. UgggggHH!"

"Hey Ino! Are you done there? If you are, come down here. We have a lot more classmates to inform" A voice shouted down from below Naruto's apartment. Ino shouted an affirmation, walked down of the apartment towards the individual and talked to the her when she got close.

"Hey Asuna, Did you know that Naruto looked so hot when shirtless and sweating! Ughhh! I should have known earlier."

Yamanaka Ino didn't get called the gossip queen without a reason.

* * *

 **(Academy Graduation day)**

Naruto looked around the field where most of his classmates were waiting for their turn to perform the academy three techniques as the final portion of the exams.

"Uzumaki Naruto!" The announcer signalled for his turn. Naruto walked forward towards the, noticing the strange looks some of his female classmates were giving him. _'Tsk I'm sure this is because of that gossip that went to my house the other day. They're like rabid wolves watching over their prey only that they are weaker than even scavengers. With mind sets like that, they won't last long in this profession. Not that I'm expecting them to be able to enter it anyway'_

As Naruto entered the examination room, he noticed that there were three judges on their seats present with a few spectators on their backs. A lingering feeling also told him that there were even more hidden on the shadows of the room.

 _'_ _Figures, The Hokage would be attending as a judge with most of the Konoha major clan heirs are within this graduation. I know which of my classmates are going to pass, the facts also tell that the team assignment is also rigged so our team positions were most likely already accounted for'_ Naruto walked to the jutsu performance area just after he finished thinking about the possible scenarios that may come.

"Perform the **Kawarimi(replacement)** technique with log available nearby" Iruka told him and Naruto performed the technique perfectly.

"Next, perform the **Henge(transformation)"** Naruto did as told transforming into a perfect replica of Iruka before reverting himself back into normal after Iruka nodded telling him it good enough. It was a good thing Iruka didn't let him stay in that form longer, lest they would notice that he was using a variant of the Henge technique.

"Finally, perform the clone jutsu" the Hokage then whispered something to the instructor's ear before he continued speaking "Hokage-sama states that you will be performing a different clone technique. The rules as well as the word of Hokage-sama states that any cloning technique is sufficient to pass this portion of the examination"

Naruto nodded to the academy instructor when he finished speaking. He performed the handseals required even though he could already do seal less clone technique but needed to do so as he didn't need suspicion rise from a simple action as that. **"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"** He called out the name of the technique for aesthetical effects just as smoke erupted surrounding his form with two identical Naruto's standing beside him as the smoke dissipated.

"Perfect, you got perfect scores in your academy three jutsu. Enough grades for the test portion and weapon throwing. Naruto Uzumaki, You pass!, come here to receive your hitai-ate as a sign you passed. You can choose a different kind of cloth though if you do not want to put it in your forehead. The ones available here are for use as belts and shoulders, the clothes are different as they require a bit more elasticity to prevent limiting your movements. The forehead band can be used on your necks already and you cannot put the bands bellow waist level unless you attain the rank of Jounin as this will be considered to be disrespect for the insignia of our village"

Naruto walked forward and chose the shoulder band as he found it looking more comfortable. When he put in on, he did find his choice to be correct. He bowed to his judges as respect

Naruto left not noticing the look of pride given for him the Hokage. _'You have grown to be a great kid Naruto, I'm sure Minato will be proud of you. I just wish I could have done more to help you, you deserve much more than what this village is giving you'_ The Hokage stopped his musing just as Uchiha Sasuke entered the room. The looks the other spectators which were also academy instructors were giving the kid told the Hokage that the kid was receiving the things that should have been more deserving to be given to the son of the Fourth Hokage, not that they would know. That information will be hidden to Naruto till he attained the rank of Jounin wherein he will receive all of his inheritance as he would then be strong enough to protect himself from enemies within and out of the village. The looks of people when the information is to be out are sure to be refreshing for the aging Hokage **.**

* * *

 **(Timeskip: Team Formation Room)**

"Team one consists of Yuuki Asuna, Kirigaya Kazuto and Kirigaya Suguha your Sensei will be Gekko Hayate. Team two and three are still under rotation." Iruka paused a bit as a figure entered the room and announced himself to be Gekko Hayate and ushered his members to follow him outside, Iruka confirmed this to be true and so the students complied.

 _'_ _I see, the Sensei's are already waiting outside. That's strange, I didn't think they would be arriving thisearly and collecting their respective teams. Perhaps the Hokage has a reason for this'_ Naruto thought just as Iruka started talking again.

"Team four will be Hasegawa Naotsugu, Hanekura Shizuka(akatsuki) and Kei Shirogane(Shiroe) your Sensei will be Uzuki Yugao" The said team leader entered and guided her members out.

 _'_ _What! Wasn't she an anbu just a few months ago? Her chakra definitely feels like the cat masked one, even if I am suppressing my senses, I am definitely sure that she was assigned to guard me three months ago. Damn! Her students are very lucky to have a sensei like her, Her chakra felt pretty strong and she was one of the most skilled in stealth. She's probably hardworking too'_ Though Naruto felt a pang of jealousy, it didn't last long as he knew there were stronger and better Sensei's out there that may be assigned to him. He just had to be lucky and Naruto didn't doubt for a second that he didn't have that.

"Team five and six is still under rotation. Team seven will be Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto your Sensei will be Hatake Kakashi"

The only female member of the team visibly got excited and pulled a tongue at her rival. She wasn't as annoying and irrational nor did he hate Naruto this time. Naruto had stopped asking her out as such she didn't develop a hating to him nor did she develop overconfidence against Naruto as Naruto performed well enough in the academy. While the academy instructors were irritated at Naruto before, most of the time letting him out of the classroom as punishment. They didn't do that this time as Naruto stopped doing pranks or anything to make himself more noticeable. Other than that, Naruto also did his ways to 'make' the teachers less baleful against him going so far as to sabotage his education that may have left him dead last of the classroom. He had put a sealtag with invisible ink on the teachers which triggers a minor Genjutsu unnoticeable by the teachers. The Genjutsu's effect was simple, it was to make them pay lesser attention to Naruto and suppress their emotions to a level forcing signals on their brain to make them calmer when a slight rise in their blood pressure arises, which mostly happens when they see Naruto. Naruto's skill in fuinjutsu was really put to use in many situations.

The Uchiha teammate of his also seemed to be satisfied to have him as a teammate. While they never had him spar against the Uchiha as he was performing too well that the instructors were afraid that he might accidentally defeat the last Uchiha and bring embarrassment to him, the Uchiha did see Naruto's spars and was very impressed on the teen, going so far as asking instructors to set his match against Naruto but never had his chance as the instructors told him the matches were 'random'.

A silver haired masked man with one of his eyes covered by his hitai-ate entered the room, one hand holding an orange book and the other inside his pockets. He called out to his 'students' and told them to follow him to training ground seven. He gave Iruka a map and told him to give him to his team. Naruto confirmed to himself that the man was the ever lazy Hatake Kakashi.

 _'_ _I had wanted to know the members of the other time but it seems I will not be able to do so, an early alliance would have pretty good now that they are sure to be Shinobi'_ Naruto thought before going out to follow his teammates who got the mask from Iruka and walked towards the designated place.

* * *

 **(Training Ground Seven)**

"Now, to start all of this. I want you to introduce yourselves; name, skills, hobbies, likes and dislikes you state it, oh and your goals in life too. Let's start from you, pinkie" Kakashi said and the said pupil started to fidget before speaking.

"Ummm, how should I do this? My name is Sakura Haruno, my hobbies include reading and doing research also dieting to look good too. My skills revolve around problem solving on any form of math and some skills at weapon throwing" Naruto coughed and excused himself, the girl didn't seem to notice his intent but the sensei did. "My likes include….wait, what? Aren't they the same as hobbies? *cue Naruto's face palm* anyway I like Sasuke-kun, reading and researching which I already said. My dislikes are critters especially caterpillars because they look so creepy" She shivered at that " My goal is to be a kunoichi with great skills in medical Ninjutsu, I don't like getting hurt much and since we can't avoid that as a ninja, I want to be able to reduce the pains before they become major problems"

"Your next broody" Kakashi didn't show any facial reaction to the girls statement and looked at Sasuke who looked at him straight in the eye and said.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke; my skills involve some Ninjutsu mostly that of Katon jutsu's. I am skilled enough at weapon throwing and using kunai as a short range weapon. My Taijutsu has not yet been bested at the academy, though I have never been able to test it against Uzumaki. My hobbies are training to become stronger; my likes are tomato flavoured and food fighting against strong people. I dislike losing in combat and annoying people. My dream, no! My goal is to surpass a man and kill him, that way I can give honor back to my clan before restoring it"

While Sasuke was speaking, Sakura was looking at him like he was some sort of a celebrity speaking words of wisdom.

"Blondie, you're up"

"I am Naruto Uzumaki; my skills lie on Fuinjutsu and some Ninjutsu, I train a lot on my Taijutsu too. My hobbies are training and learning more about Fuinjutsu. My likes are eating ramen, Fuinjutsu and hardworking people as well as intellectual individuals as you can learn a lot from them. I do not like those who do not work hard even though they have the chance and capability to do so. My dream for now is to obtain a wide ray of knowledge found all over the world and be able to apply them to Fuinjutsu. My goal is to prevent a future that is full of war, chaos and destruction and make everyone know that Fuinjutsu is a great art capable of doing diverse things as well as it can also be a force to be reckoned with" Naruto pointed out Fuinjutsu more than necessary so as to make Kakashi used to him doing the said art.

"I guess that signals my cue, My name is Kakashi Hatake, my skills are that of what a Jounin has, my hobbies and likes involve reading books with the same genre as this one I am holding and lazing out. I don't want to tell my dislikes as well as my goals" The three student's sweatdropped before Kakashi continued.

"Hmmm, let's start the basic evaluation to you" Kakashi pointed a finger at Sakura "Reading will only do you good if that knowledge benefit your life as a ninja. Whether that information is crucial for your missions or down for relaxation, but it should never have to take more than a little of your time if it is for relaxation as that time could have been spent training instead (*Naruto looked at Kakashi with a bland face*), your skills in math and researching can be put to use in the research and cypher division but that profession is only available for Chunnin and up so you might want to start working your skills up. I would advise that you do not speak of your dislikes nearby an Aburame. Your goal to be a medic-nin is no doubt a good one if only you have the drive to fulfil it" Kakashi's tone spoke of experience and authority as such; his words were of great effect to the girl.

"Broody! The way you stated your clan name first before your first implies that you value your clan more than yourself, There is great reason that you almost never hear ninja tell of their last name first if it was not for legal purposes or inside their own villages as each of us have an unspoken reasoning that we want to have the satisfaction of individuality, that we are not merely just a part of a village as a pawn. That we live too, and we have our own purpose in life. You can put it this way, I am not only a Hatake Kakashi but I am also Kakashi of the thousand jutsu. I already have high expectations from you as the rookie of the year, your spar with Uzumaki may come in the near future. I have nothing to say in your likes and dislikes as well as your goal, but I will tell you. Revenge will do you no good in the long run" Kakashi didn't give Sasuke the time to react to his last statement as he looked at Naruto and spoke.

"I have a question before I start evaluating you. You seem to have picked up an interest in the art of Fuinjutsu. Is this because you have learnt the history of Uzushio?" Kakashi asked, his tone and face with blank emotion.

"Yes" Naruto replied simply.

"I see, I hope you do not blame Konoha for the fall of your clan. There is little I can say about your liking in Fuinjutsu as your clan was known to be the best and unmatched in the art of Fuinjutsu. They were allies of our village during the past, the spiral insignia you see on the vest of Chunnin and Jounin are actually the insignia of your clan and was put there as a respect and honor to our bond with your clan" Both Sasuke and Sakura had wide eyes when they heard Kakashi speak of Naruto's clan with reverence. Sasuke was envious of the fact that his clan got no such recognition left in the village after their fall, the insignia of their clan being something like a lost relic unseen inside the village other than in their ghost town of a district.

"I do not hold that grudge as I was not even born during the fall and neither would it benefit me if I did. I do not practice Fuinjutsu to restore honor to my clan, the Uzumaki never did that for sure. Our skill and prowess in it runs in the blood, my liking to learn knowledge and travel was also a trait that is common to our kin if what I read in the history books is true. I am not yet hopeless though, I know that there are more of us out there, scattered and waiting to be bonded once more. I will not go around looking for them specifically but I would not deprive them of help if they seek it" Naruto replied to Kakashi. Sasuke felt another pang of jealousy build up in his chest as he learnt that there may be more of the members of Naruto's clan unlike his that was already nearing extinction.

"It's great that you have learnt to let go of the past Naruto, it is a great value that not every ninja has. Hatred breeds only hatred itself and is the primary catalyst of war which you said that you wanted to prevent. Your likes and dislikes, hmmm. I have nothing to say about them. Your goal is a noble one, to prevent a future with war and chaos huh? It will be up to you to make a move. Thousands of people already tried their part in that, you'd have to be some sort of destined person to be able to do that, otherwise you may only be taking another simple step just like all those who tried" Kakashi then clasped both his hands.

"All right! You three piqued my interest. But that's not enough for you to be my official students" Kakashi looked at his clock. "It's still 10:24 so we still have time for the survival test to determine whether you are to become Genin of this village or not"

"What! We already passed the graduation exams, aren't we already Genin?" Sakura exclaimed.

"Oh that? Nope, those exams are to weed out those without potential and bring out the cream of the crop. Another test will be given to you to find out whether you have enough potential and preparation to become a true ninja otherwise you will be sent back to the academy again to nurture you till you are prepared. Failing this twice will have you removed from the program to provide more room for other potentials. Some students actually quit the program after failing once due to disappointment. The world out there isn't your friend, if you cannot pass a simple test, what makes you think you have enough to survive outside the village?"

The three students were silent. Naruto already had anticipated that the entrance to the program would not be easy so he was the least surprised. Sasuke had been annoyed at first as it may delay him from achieving his goals but later realized that the teacher's words had truth in them.

"Now then for the test. You have to take these bells from me before three o'clock" Kakashi held 2 bells in his hand.

"The one who does not get a bell will be sent back to the academy and as you can see. There are only two bells so you should already be able to work out how this works. Now let's see how skilled you are. The test starts….NOW!"

Not long after Kakashi signalled the start, two of the students hid in the bushes with Naruto left who walked a few steps to the left, sat down and pulled out a scroll and brush and started making a Fuin Matrix. Kakashi sweatdropped at the teens lack of fear in front of a prospective enemy and started walking closer to him.

"Didn't you know that it is not good to lower your guard on a prospective enemy, it might cost you your life on the battlefield? There is no way an enemy would just let you make a weapon to defeat them just in front of their eyes without trying to incapacitate you" Kakashi spoke while walking towards Naruto. Naruto was silent even as Kakashi stood only a meter in front of him opting to continue what he was doing. Curiosity got the best of Kakashi so he waited for the seal matrix to finish.

Naruto continued writing the matrix with practiced fluidity that made Kakashi cautious as even he himself was nowhere near that skilled when he was at Naruto's age. His speed in making the matrix was also baffling, he was almost certain that he would not be able to compete in the teen in terms of calligraphy. _'Tsk, as expected of an Uzumaki. I wonder what rank he is already'_ Kakashi thought. It had been at least ten minutes since the start of the test but Naruto's fluid calligraphy was mesmerizing Kakashi, he wanted to know how this would end. Besides, Fuinjutsu made on spot with lesser time are usually weak and so Kakashi wasn't expecting much.

After 15 minutes passed, Naruto spoke while still writing simultaneously "You said we have to take the bells from you but you never said we have to defend against an onslaught. Though it can be argued that you never stated against it too. Regardless of that" Naruto looked up at Kakashi as the seal matrix on the scroll in his hand start to glow.

"What made you think I never put defensive measures in case you try to attack me?" Naruto was giving Kakashi a feral grin that made the hairs on his back stand up. Kakashi then noticed a glowing matrix surrounding the area both he and Naruto was in, Naruto didn't seem to have the same restrictions that he felt though _._

 _'_ _Crap why can't I move! He already finished that one and there's already another one set up around prematurely. So that was what the clones I saw when I arrived for'_ Kakashi was thinking of the possible ways to escape his predicament.

When Kakashi arrived at the training field, there were already a few of Naruto's clones running around doing random things. Kakashi had opted to read his books while walking towards the field so he wasn't surprised when the teen's clones got there first. He was also the first to learn that Naruto was capable of shadow clone so it wasn't a surprise to him. Upon arriving at the training field though, he chose to read his book and wait for his students instead of observing what the kids clones was doing and now he had to pay the price.

"A seal that is more complex and takes longer to make is usually a very strong and effective one. The seal on the ground was made after twenty minutes and that was with five clones so you should already have an idea of how potent it can be. It's a basic paralysis seal used for prisoners but I layered it five times. The one in my arm is another basic one you should already know of" Naruto spoke as he started making handseals. Kakashi was starting to unbind himself by overpowering the paralysis seal with his chakra but it was taking too long as the seal had more than a few layers.

The seals were still glowing when Naruto finished the handseals he was making and exclaimed "Compress!" The inscriptions of the matrix started to move till they formed a familiar pattern to Kakashi. "That's a military grade explosive tag!Naruto stop that it may kill us both!" Kakashi shouted to a still grinning Naruto who puffed out of existence signalling that he was just a shadow clone and leaving the glowing scroll to the ground along with a still bound Kakashi.

 **BOOOOM!**

* * *

Sasuke was hiding on a nearby bush when the exchange between Kakashi and Naruto happened and had to jump away lest he be damaged by the explosion.

 _'_ _Tsk! I never knew Fuinjutsu was this diverse and strong. Why weren't they taught in the academy'_ He was seething in anger and envy now. Ever since the start of this day Naruto had continued to show him that he had more than what Sasuke had.

Sasuke's eyes then widened when the smoke dissipated and revealed a dirtied form of Kakashi who's clothes were burnt and had a few rips on random parts of his armor, blood was also dripping from the wounds both visible and invisible in his form. Kakashi holding a hand seal on the same spot he was before the explosion. 'How did he survive that? I see, He's not as incompetent as I thought he would be if he was able to survive that. Now is my best chance before he recovers from that shock' He darted forward.

Sasuke started a string of handseals and jumped when he was nearby Kakashi and shouted "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" He expelled a great amount of flame that sped up to Kakashi who looked alarmed. Three kunai's also entered the fray towards Kakashi; Sasuke looked at the direction of the throw and saw a panting Sakura. The flames connected to Kakashi covering his whole form before kunais followed.

 _'_ _She's also not as useless as I thought she would be'_ the smoke resulting from the flame jutsu was starting to dissipate.

Sasuke was expecting a downed form of Kakashi as he would just take the bells for himself to finish the test but didn't expect two hands to sprout from the ground and pull him down.

"Two down, One to go" Kakashi said above Sasuke. He was panting a little with the same damage he saw before still evident on the man.

 _'_ _Our attacks didn't connect to him? How? Who was the other one he captured?'_ Sasuke was alarmed and looked at the last position Sakura was in and saw the girl to be unconscious and salivating with an open mouth. Her eyes were open but looked blank and horrified. 'Genjutsu!' Sasuke hypothesized.

"Now that both of your allies are done for. What are you going to do now Naruto? I know where you are hiding, I'm sure you know I know too. I was on full guard during that explosion so I felt the pulse you emitted to check up on my condition. I didn't think of you to be a sensor too but now that's another thing I know from your arsenal." Kakashi finished speaking just as Naruto went out of a bush around 20 meters away from Kakashi.

 _`He's a sensor too? Just how strong are you Uzumaki?'_ Sasuke's jealousy was returning full force.

"I had to cover myself with an earth jutsu to boost my durability during that explosion and poured a great amount of chakra to it too and it's still not enough as I was late a few moments due to your paralysis seal, had it been other Jounin who was put in that situation, they would have probably been done for. That explosion was enough to take down a building. Tell me Naruto, what rank are you in Fuinjutsu now to be capable of making a military grade explosive seal within a few minutes" Kakashi eyes looked like that of a hunter now. Naruto was proving to be too skilled in the art of Fuinjutsu to be left unchecked; they didn't want to have another itachi run loose around Konoha. Naruto must be guided properly or else it might be the end for them. Kakashi had no doubt now that Naruto already knew of the kyuubi inside him; he would also not be surprised if Naruto had already started to train with its chakra. With the kyuubi in him and his prowess in sealing arts, his skills in sensory arts; Kakashi had to make sure Naruto was still sane and had no grudges to how the village treated him with ignorance.

"I had already made the explosive seal on the back of the scroll and only wrote a matrix made to enhance it on its other side which you saw so you would think that I was capable of making those strong explosive seals on the spot. I made it that way so that you would be surprised and find it hard to counter act against it. I'm still not on the level to make seals as strong as that on the spot. It actually took me three hours to make that explosive matrix with a few clones and it only lasts two days if unused before it becomes null, my sensory skills shouldn't surprise you. You need chakra precision and control to practice Fuinjutsu so almost all who practice Fuinjutsu have affinity to Sensory and Medical Jutsu's" Naruto lied. Kakashi's eyes showed relief which was noticed by Naruto so he took it as a signal that Kakashi accepted his explanation.

"So most of your skills stemmed from Fuinjutsu huh? Well that almost convinces me to start studying it more seriously. The third lesson, Ninjutsu was already taught through Sasuke, the second which is Genjutsu was done through Sakura. Now that that's done, let's see how you fare well with what should have been the first lesson, Taijutsu!" Kakashi blurred and started attacking him relentlessly. Naruto was having a hard time holding himself against Kakashi. While he retained his knowledge and wisdom as well as yin chakra (spiritual half) from the return. His physical skills had to be trained from zero. His progress was remarkable now though as he already knew what to train for and he also trained even more vigorously. It wasn't a question that he was multiple times physically stronger than he was on the previous timeline this age.

 _'_ _The Taijutsu Naruto is using seems like the azure mantis swordless style, this technique was last seen used by_ _Ameyuri Ringo (a/n: please remember that I do not use OC's) who was one of the seven swordsman of the mist before she died in an unknown decease. The swordless style wasn't as strong as the one original sword style but it is not something to be trifled too. I have to inquire the Hokage about Naruto, there's too much mystery revolving around him. Had not Hayate shown me a few steps of this style both swordless and sword style on our spars then I would not be able to recognize it. Naruto probably didn't think I would know of it, My injuries are starting to slow me down too is able to hit me a few times already I can't keep this longer or else Naruto might find another way to utilize his seals'_

The Azure mantis sword style was the one Naruto used and practiced the most as he found it most fascinating during his last timeline. The swordless counterpart didn't include punches but instead required the user to have their fingers closed together forming a chopping hand, the technique incorporated kicks, slashes, slices, slaps and chops with this hand formation. The hands were enveloped in chakra to increase its slashing or slicing power the same way the Hyuuga did with their gentle fist, except, the azure serpent style enveloped the whole arm which made it chakra costly as it had to be maintained with the chakra being focused to become like a knife and covered the whole arm. Even without the sword, the precision required to perform the technique was no doubt enough to cut unsuspecting enemies. It was a technique meant to kill made by the first wielder of the Kiba blades and passed down to its future wielders to be able to defend themselves even without their swords. The Azure Mantis sword style was a style that was near to being lost too for almost a decade already and the last person who mastered it already died which made Naruto even more suspicious to Kakashi's eye. Hayate was only able to learn it as he was a descendant of the creator of it who had one of his progeny transfer to Konoha as a part of a treaty during the past; His ancestor was probably also the reason why he was one of the strongest swordsmen living in Konoha, his blood runs through Hayate after all. If not for his disease which was believed to be the same disease caught by Ameyuri then he would probably have been the strongest swordsman of the leaf, the sword style was made to be used as mass assassination method as it was far more dangerous than its swordless counterpart. The sword style when looked in a third person perspective made the user like a blade dancing and destroying all that comes into the path of the user. The Kiba blades were claimed to be the sharpest swords in the elemental nation and allowed lighting chakra to be funnelled to them. This made the wielders even more dangerous when incorporated with the style.

Naruto evaded a punch made by Kakashi and jumped back only to perform a breakneck fast backflip and that forced Kakashi to block the kick accompanied with the flip with a cross arm enhanced with chakra.

 _'_ _Ughhh, that's it! This is no doubt the azure mantis style. That kick was infused with precise chakra and that move was used to me by Hayate too. My injuries are slowing me down too much and I didn't completely escape that fireball jutsu of Sasuke too. I need to step up my game and finish this.'_

Kakashi stepped up his game and made Naruto struggle even more. While Kakashi was receiving a few hits but Naruto's end seemed to have just a few more. They weren't anything major and Naruto was only able to hit him because of his injuries as well as he was holding back. Now that he fought with less restraint, Naruto was taking even more damage than before and Kakashi stopped being on the receiving end. Kakashi had been too focused at Naruto that he didn't notice the swipe to his belt where the bells were located. Kakashi heard the tingling of the bell and executed a seal less replacement to a nearby tree. The log replacing him falling to the ground just as he saw Naruto and Sasuke look at him both greatly panting due to exhaustion. He looked at the last position he left sakura and saw her still unconscious from the Genjutsu with a Naruto clone guarding her _._

'I see, he left clones before our fight to secure his teammates. A great quality that is, there is no doubt he'll make a great ninja. It's not even an hour yet they are too exhausted already for more. Sasuke I can understand but Naruto. I saw him training during my shifts and I'm pretty sure he's a juggernaut in terms of stamina. I guess I did a great number on him, serves him right for trying to kill me Hehe' He raised a hand to placate the two students still conscious signalling the end of their test then sent a clone to wake up sakura which took a while. Kakashi then thought for a second before telling the teens to follow him, two of them exhausted and one flustered as she realized she fell for a very basic Genjutsu and did the least amount of work in the test.

He guided them towards another field where there was black monument with inscriptions on it. He looked the three who was inspecting the monument then spoke.

"You haven't gotten a bell but you performed exceptionally by working along with one another even if you never intended it as teamwork as you never planned to help one another. You utilized the chances made by your teammates; this means you are willing to work with one another in a degree. Now I'm going to tell you that the true purpose of this test was to test was to test whether or not you are capable of teamwork regardless of your companion. On the field, you will not always be able to choose who you will be working with, don't think for a second that you will be enough at all times. Konoha prioritizes its bonds more than anything else, to a ninja that will be your teammates as such you must learn to rely on them. As a ninja, you must always look underneath the underneath. There will be times where you will be given a choice whether to finish a mission or save a comrade. A friend told me once; those who abandon their friends are worse than trash!" Kakashi's tone held more than one emotion as such it was hard to decipher for the students on what Kakashi was feeling.

"This monument is where the ninjas have died in their missions is written. To us they are heroes who sacrificed themselves for the good of many. This is a testament that each of us has capacities and need one another to survive this cruel world. Tomorrow will mark the start of your journey as a ninja, don't come late. Or else you will receive punishment"

"Sensei, I saw a name there. Is Kushina Uzumaki my mother? She's the only Uzumaki written there and Hokage-JiJi said she died with a mission together with my father. But I don't see any other Uzumaki there. Was my father not an Uzumaki? I also saw a name Hatake Sakumo there, is he your relative?" Naruto's tone held innocence but in truth he was actually trying to trigger something with his words. He wanted to learn how much trust Kakashi had on him.

Kakashi grew silent, his eyes suddenly blank, then spoke "Hatake Sakumo was my father, I'm sorry Naruto I cannot tell you of your parents. You would have to go to the Hokage for that. *Sigh* Our meeting is done for now, meet me in the same place. And don't forget to be early" Kakashi performed a shunshin to go away after that leaving the three teens on their devices.

"Neh Sasuke-kun, would you like to eat together. I know a place where we can eat nearby, it's a good spot to relax too" Sakura asked Sasuke hopefully a few moments after Kakashi left.

"I will be going to the ramen bar then, I'll be seeing you two tomorrow" Naruto announced before starting to walk away.

"Wait!" Sasuke called out to Naruto just as he was almost out of sight and walked towards him leaving a dejected sakura. "Can I come with you?" Sasuke said after catching up with him.

"That will be all right, it would also be good to call out sakura. We should have a team meeting and get to know each other more, it might help our teamwork. Kakashi sensei said it was important and I doubt a sensei would want to teach his students wrong" Naruto called out to sakura who lightened up and followed after the two.

* * *

 **(Ramen Bar)**

When they arrived the food took a while to prepare as the old man Ichiraku knew he had to prepare more as it was Naruto who was there, this gave the teens a few minutes of talking about one another. When the food got ready the three of them started eating simultaneously. When Sakura and Sasuke looked at Naruto eating, their eyes bulged out and widened considerably as they saw Naruto slurp up an unholy amount ramen in breakneck speed. He already had fourteen stacked empty bowls on his tab with one coming on the way while the two were still on their second bow.

"I think I'm already full hehe" sakura said as she pushed her bowl away from herself actually disgusted with Naruto's eating though she never stated it as it would be disrespectful. Naruto wasn't actually doing a different method of eating; it was his pace that disgusted sakura. 'That's way too unhealthy; I wonder how he still has a functioning body with that diet'

"Ahemmmm" Sasuke shook himself of the shock and opted to speak to Naruto even while he was still slurping the ramen like it was breathing air.

He had wanted to be alone with Naruto to learn more about the teen as he wanted to apply Naruto's training method to himself as he saw him capable of holding himself against Kakashi even for just a while, no doubt Sasuke would not have been able to do such a feat. He also wanted to know where Naruto learnt Fuinjutsu as it seemed to be an exceptional art that would benefit him greatly. He had to put up with Sakura but it would be worth well the inconvenience if his plan bore fruit. Strangely enough the girl didn't act like a how she did at school which was a total fangirl. She still seemed interested in him but not on the same level that she showed in the academy. He had wanted to speak to him about this since their arrival at the ramen bar but the direction of the previous conversations they had prevented him from doing so, added to the fact that sakura kept talking to Naruto about random things she noticed about the both of them during academy times. Nothing too annoying but still, it was distracting him from his goal on Naruto. Sasuke wasn't able to ask Naruto though as Naruto beat him by speaking first.

"Sakura, why do you not act like how you did in the academy? Like swoon over Sasuke and do fangirl things" Naruto knew it was a rude thing to ask for but his curiosity got over him.

"Well, in the academy I've got lots of competition and you know, I've got to give my best to stand a chance. I liked Sasuke a lot but I did still like a lot of others, he is just the most prominent one and we girls have this kind of challenge of who's going to be his first girlfriend. Kinda like wining a trophy we can boast about if we were successful, I heard the previous year before us had the same challenge but with a Hyuuga. Anyway I figured that now that were teammates, then I no longer have the need to let myself be noticed too much since there's no longer competition. That is unless I have to compete with Naruto" Sakura didn't seem offended by the question and answered eagerly even going as far as giving Naruto a wink after her last statement that made Naruto shiver and look at Sasuke for confirmation. Said teen glared at Sakura for her statement but did nothing more.

Both Naruto and Sakura laughed at that reaction from Sasuke.

"Well it's never really a spoken thing but it won't be different if we spoke about it, so we just went with the flow and did the competition. I'm not sure about the others but that's how I saw it. Besides, I don't want to lose to Ino-pig, shed rub it in my face so many times if she won you. Anyway I'm sorry for thinking of you like that hehe!. Anyway Naruto, I heard from Ino that you looked very hot when shirtless and sweating, I mean I know you wear this bulky clothes and they look good at you but she's right you know. You should wear less, a muscle shirt perhaps. You know, I think that would be perfect to make me feel into training too. And I know you stopped asking me out on a date but I wouldn't mind if you started again you know" Sakura raised her eyebrows twice for an extra effect. She started coming out of her shell when they started coming out a while ago but Naruto didn't expect that shed shatter those same shells and show her true colors this early.

This time it was Naruto's turn to glare at Sakura. After a while, the two of them burst laughing with the third trying to stifle a chuckle. They didn't know what made them comfortable around one another but it was quite refreshing. To Sasuke it was a great thing that he no longer had to put up with a mindless fangirl. To Naruto he was happy that her teammate was a redeemable one. A bit of shaping up needed but sooner or later, she could be someone he could trust his back too if what he remembered about her future self's skills and abilities was true. Naruto was sceptical at Sasuke as what he remembers from the teens future counterpart was not good, this one will make a good comrade if guided. 'I'll make sure they'll both be my allies this time' Naruto thought.

They kept talking till they made themselves full. Sakura regained her appetite halfway through. Even Sasuke talked a bit about himself during their talk. Somehow Naruto felt that his team was heading to a good direction. He even felt Kakashi's chakra along with a familiar one somewhere outside the ramen bar, he couldn't identify the other one as it would risk detection if he focused more. The other one seemed to know of his sensory abilities so he suppressed his chakra to a level. 'Tsk, I'm already doing a Genin level sensing, if I up the ante a bit, the suspicion painted on me would be even bigger. That other one feels way too familiar, I need to learn of him later on. I don't like being faced with the unknown' Naruto thought.

He didn't linger on the thought too much as he was having fun together with his teammates for the first time in this timeline.

They left a few hours later with the bill on Naruto's tab as he insisted even with Sasuke and Sakura's protest. He had been saving up a lot since he didn't have much to spend for since the return, his experiments and research was already accounted for as he was also secretly supplying Konoha with Seals but with a cover so his financial status was going great. His Gamma wallet was always full due to Hokage's stipend when he was still on the academy.

A while after they left the individual next to Kakashi spoke "He definitely is hiding his sensory skills, I could feel that he holding himself back from using more potent sensing. He looks normal though, he's doing well. He doesn't seem to hold negative emotions against the village if the way he was talking a while ago is to be based at. I'll check up on him on the upcoming exams, I've been so busy tracking a dangerous group that I've been neglecting to visit him. Right now they even added more members than the original; they are starting to gather subordinates, which make them even more dangerous now. Kakashi, we both have responsibilities in taking care of him. I entrust him to you while I still have no time. I'll guard him from the threats outside the village so please guard him from the inside"

"Of course I will, I won't disappoint Minato-sensei this time" Kakashi replied.

-Chapter End-

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 **Authors Note:**

 **References used:**

 **Hasegawa Naotsugu, Hanekura Shizuka** ** _(akatsuki)_** **and Kei Shirogane** ** _(Shiroe)- Log Horizon(anime)_**

 **Yuuki Asuna, Kirigaya Kazuto and Kirigaya Suguha-** ** _Sword Art Online(anime)_**

I know I didn't describe their outfits so it will be up to you guys to let your imaginations go wild. As always, your reviews will ignite the flames of drive inside to post more chapters so….I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

 **R &R**


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: History Lessons and Kenjutsu**

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Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other reference I used in this fanfiction. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and the references used belong to their respective owners.

 **A/N: So here's another chapter for you And I also hope you don't get frustrated with this chapter cause It's got a few long paragraphs here and there but I assure you that unlike most Naruto fics, these ones are necessary(In my perspective of course).**

Speech- "Naruto, where are you going?"

Thoughts- _'I wonder where Naruto is going'_

(Bold letters mean serious business or bijuu stuff, pretty sure you guys know how this works already)

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 **Chapter 3: History Lessons and Kenjutsu**

(Location: Naruto's Hideout in Konoha)

Naruto looked at the four bound men in front of him. Cuts, burns and bruises were found all over them. It had been a day since naruto's ramen hangout with his teammates.

These men were only a few of Orochimaru's spies planted inside Konoha. Naruto had scoured Konoha looking for spies lurking inside its walls. He knew it was a dangerous move as the Hokage had already assigned anbu's for this job all over the village but he was determined to find some for himself as he had a lot of purpose for these individuals. Every village had their own sleeper agents hidden from their eyes, this was an unavoidable fact that no village could deny even to the five great hidden villages. There was just too much things to account for that it was impossible to defend a village on all sides, though this does't mean that the villages do not have precautionary steps taken should these people try to do something against the village.

Naruto's search was a success as he found four individuals who were actually spies of Orochimaru hidden in Konoha. Sensory Ninjutsu coupled with Fuinjutsu did wonders for this project. He had found four prospective persons who contained a minutely tainted chakra that was no doubt the work of the incomplete **Cursed Seal of Earth**. The seals seemed to be weakened and sealed away due to probable failure, He hypothesized that the individuals were left to Konoha as sleeper agents to send Orochimaru regular updates about the village. These individuals were Chunnin level but probably got through experience and not talent, their age would suggest so as the youngest was about 25 and the oldest being 35. They didn't seem to have kept up their training too.

Naruto had grown more careful during his stay, he had considered all factors that could affect his capture of the individuals and covered up most of the holes his plan had before executing it, there was never a perfect plan, Naruto knew that so he settled for the next best thing. He had learnt of their plan to meet up and compile the data before sending it to Orochimaru and this was when he executed his plan. The result was a success, He procured four persons without alerting the anbu or the Hokage by creating fake scenario that made the public believe that these people burnt to ashes on an incident after eating together on a bar in the red district. Naruto made up the scenario that the four had gotten 'drunk' and started 'fighting' against each other which started the fire and trapped them on the building. The incident didn't have other 'casualties' other than the four but it did leave a few injured civilians, most of which were the drunk ones who wasn't able to escape fast enough when the four juked out their techniques. There was no witness to how the fight ended but the witness to how it started was actually manipulated by Naruto with his ways to tell the anbu that the four had gotten drunk and started fighting. The ashes were suspected to be blown off by the wind as it was a windy night during that incident. The anbu and nearby ninja's could have come to rescue with a few Suiton jutsu's but Naruto had already taken steps for that. Naruto held pity to the restaurant as it was he who actually caused their fall so he sent cash to them as a mystery benefactor

"I'm telling you the truth, we already told you all that we know about Orochimaru. Were just his minions so we don't have much information. Please release us we still have our families waiting for us outside!" The man begged Naruto with tears dripping in his eyes. Naruto didn't have to hide his identity as he had already taken all precautionary measures for security. These people were done for already; Naruto decided that, when he captured them. He could not risk the leak of information lead the enemy to him should this four find a way to escape.

"Do you really think I'd fall for that lie? I have researched every one of you carefully down to the smallest details. You four have no bonds in this village. You have friends but I doubt you consider them true friends; you probably befriended a few just to cover yourselves from suspicion. The fact that you work for Orochimaru is a testament to what you really are" Naruto said.

"If you already knew that and got what you wanted from us, then why won't you just kill us!" The same man who was previously begging was now shouting, forgoing his façade of weakness, they had pleaded Naruto too many times to remember and they were losing their hope for escape. Even if they escaped, Konoha would sure be fast to capture them. They had thought of telling Konoha about this brat after escaping just to screw him up but then, the same brat painted a seal on them that made them forget anything they learn about him every few hours. This was the same to the information's they revealed about Orochimaru too, which memories about got blurry but not forgotten. It was starting to create gaps on their memory and they were starting to lose their sanity.

"Unfortunately for you four, I have even more important purpose for you than the information you hold about your boss. You see, I can't use civilians for my projects and resea rch. That would be cruel, we ninja exist to protect them. However, you four have done the opposite. You said you were ordered to send orphans to an old warhawk, some civilians who became missing were actually caused by you and also, divulging information to an enemy should be enough grounds for execution" Naruto's tone unnerved the four. They were actually thinking if this kid would do the same experiments Orochimaru did to his less fortunate subjects.

"Don't worry; I don't do experiments like how Orochimaru does. I have no need to tinker the organs of a human body nor do I want to reach immortality. I just simply want to test some of my new creations so that I can be sure they are failsafe when used in combat. Like they say, better you than me" Naruto's demeanour was carefully controlled.

He had been uneasy at first to the notion of using live persons as test subjects. However, he figured that his capabilities would be bound to stagnation if he could not practice without these subjects. While his body itself was more durable compared to even the most seasoned ninjas due to his state of being a Jinchūriki and his lineage, there is always risk of injury and even death if he failed the experiments when done to himself. Naruto had reached the rank of a Grandmaster without being able to use much of offensive seals as he had little way to little ways to apply it. Most of the seals he had been able to concoct were ones that augmented his abilities rather than harm his enemies. Although Naruto does **NOT** remember, Kaguya was the only possible enemy for him to test his offensive seals, most of which were shrugged off by her. And so, his progress on the offensive area of his Fuinjutsu was put to a halt.

His situation right now was favourable to him though, with no one looking for these people and with him finally "ok" with the notion of human experimentation(with Fuinjutsu of course). He should be able to progress even more in the art of Fuinjutsu even more.

"Hey what are you doing?! Stop that! Remove that thing from me!" One of the bound persons screamed as Naruto put a complex seal tag on his forehead and performed a couple of handseals.

"Let us see if this one is effective or defective, **"Fuin: Demon's Hunt Illusion!"** Naruto finished his string of handseals and watched his experiment perform its part. The man's eyes started to widen. Naruto walked to the man and he cut of his binds as a part of the experiment.

This new seal that Naruto developed actually falls more into Genjutsu rather than Fuinjutsu. However, Naruto chakra control couldn't be applied to Genjutsu so this Seal utilized and manipulated the enemies' chakra against themselves. The Seal created illusion of demons(yokai) around the target, their numbers and figure changed depending on the mental resilience of the person and continued to supply the illusion until a certain amount of chakra infused to the seal is used up or overridden by the enemy. The seal manipulates the pain sensors of the body to create a true feeling of pain that while it gave no injuries, the mental stability of the enemy should crumble down if it was executed perfectly making it easier for Naruto to capture the target which was his reason for the creation of this seal. There were a few restrictions to the seal though. The maximum amount of chakra Naruto could infuse to it was equivalent to that of an A rank technique (Jounin level) or else it would be unstable and not work like how it should, Naruto couldn't also infuse the chakra prematurely and it required a mental link to the seal as such he couldn't utilize his chakra for other purposes, Naruto could evade and perform attacks but he couldn't cut the unconscious link lest the technique would come to an end. The technique had no negative drawbacks other than that though and it created an illusion equivalent to a High Jounin level illusion so it was well worth the effort to make it. It was still on its experimental stages though and those stats should have been 'how' it should work should it be finalized.

Naruto pondered for a bit. He found it strange that he could do Medical Jutsu but couldn't apply Genjutsu.

 **"** **You can't do Illusions without the help of seals Naruto; it is not about you but rather about me. Even if you have enough control to perform Medical Jutsu, it still would not be enough to perform Genjutsu. You will never have enough control for Genjutsu. That doesn't just apply to you, but to all Jinchūriki"** The deep voice of Kurama spoke from inside him, his tone dripping of boredom. The experimented man suddenly darted around the base without a true sense of direction. The seal was taking effect.

"Why?" Naruto inquired vocally, he had no fear of discovery inside his lair and found it troublesome to exert effort to reply mentally. Naruto was a hardworking ninja but he had his moments of laziness too.

 **"** **With enough control and mental conditioning, a Jinchūriki is able to harmonize our kind's chakra with their own and create a balanced chakra that can be used for reinforcement or healing. However, while reinforcement and healing is possible, the other person on the receiving end should never constantly receive the chakra on prolonged amounts of time. While the impurities of the bijuu chakra can be put to minimum, they can never be fully cleansed thus will accumulate till they have enough to harm the receiver"**

"What? How is that? I may not remember how or when it happened but I know that I can reinforce my allies with my Senjutsu enhanced-Jinchūriki chakra" He was telling the truth about not remembering how or when it happened but Naruto knew this was a risky statement that had a lot of holes, he was hoping that the beast would think that he was referring to Naruto's previous self memories(Ashura) who used Ninshu to and NOT **"Senjutsu enhanced-Jinchūriki chakra".**

 **"** **Tsk, figures. While you have learnt a lot of things and remembered a few from your past lives, you still forgot to check up how things work the long run"** Kurama allowed Naruto to ponder on his words for a bit and opted to observe the experiment through Naruto's eyes **.** The man whipped out his imaginary kunai which was included in the illusion so that it would give him some sort of defence. He started slashing around thin air and screaming as if he struck something.

Naruto's eyes widened considerably as realization struck him "Wait! So you are saying that reinforcing allies on long periods of time can cause harm in the long run. With the basis of how tainted bijuu chakra affected me before I'll just assume that their lifespans are reduced with each passing moment of use!"

The kyuubi grinned and showed his feral tooth's **"Now there's the intellect I've been looking for. Yes, the cleansed chakra boosts their abilities and grants immense healing properties at the cost of lifespan. It may not take much but it won't change the fact. The Jinchūriki are given their beasts at an early age for a reason. The higher the number of tails of the bijuu, the younger the person should be as their chakra pathways will need time to adjust accordingly. This will lead to their body at an older age being already adjusted to the influx of the foreign chakra. When the beast and the jailor harmonizes with one another, the improved chakra quality would then no longer have negative effects to the Jinchūriki who was already used to the more volatile version of the bijuu chakra, the other people who have not received the same amount of conditioning like the Jinchūriki received will never have the same benefits as them, why do you think berserk Jinchūriki have their flesh receive great burns when using bijuu chakra opposed to ones that have great connection with their beast?"** The man in the background started firing low level Ninjutsu's though it seems that the said man noticed they had little effect so he opted back to manual fighting. Naruto had to move the other prisoners to another location lest they be harmed, they had wide eyes now as they observed their leader fighting against thin air.

Naruto spoke after the prisoners have been relocated "Tsk, I always knew something was wrong with that method. Wait…How does that matter to the fact that I can't do Genjutsu?"

 **"** **Listen to this Naruto. The bijuu chakra is poisonous and toxic at its primary stage even to the jailor, added to the fact that the said jailor doesn't have enough connection to the bijuu to cleanse the chakra so it's impossible to use it for Ninjutsu during its primary stages. With enough connection to the bijuu, Medical Ninjutsu is a viable option to the Jinchūriki due to the more stable bijuu chakra. Now, Genjutsu requires perfectly balanced chakra to be infused to make the targets network go haywire as it won't be able to sense the foreign chakra as they were perfectly balanced and moulded to fool the opponent's defences. So it means basically that the chakra sent to the target is moulded so that it would go unnoticed by the enemy or else they may be noticed immediately and dispelled without much effect. Tell me Naruto, do you think that bijuu chakra even when better balanced would go unnoticed by the enemy especially if it is inside them? Hah! Release even a Genin level amount of my chakra in this village and I'm sure all ninja of all rank would know of it. Our chakra is far different and more potent than those of you humans so you are sure to notice it, Genjutsu lies on subtlety which is lost here. Even if by dumb luck the enemy wouldn't sense the remnants of bijuu chakra infused to them, do you think that it would meld and combine with their network which is the primary step to create the illusion? No it would not, the remnants of the bijuu chakra would act like poison as you never "purified" them like how you do in Medical Ninjutsu and Reinforcement, the chakra being poison means it will never combine properly to create illusion"** The bijuu while speaking, exuded an aura of great knowledge; Naruto didn't find it hard to believe the beast. The man in the background panted from the efforts it exerted and slapped both his hands on the ground after a few handseals and made an earth dome as defence.

"So this means I can use your chakra to poison my enemies?"

 **"** **Yes and no. Yes, you can poison them with my chakra and No you can't use this as strategy. My chakra was never welcome to their bodies; they can easily expel them with little effort if they tried. The only reason my chakra does not get expelled when used for Healing and reinforcement is because the receiver is actually opening up their defences just so that their body won't expel the alien chakra. It will also be impossible for your chakra to be the same as that of a regular human. As you know, Jinchūriki seals are meant to not only bind a bijuu to a human but also for them to utilize their chakra. Yours was especially made to constantly supply my chakra to you till you take all of mine, so your chakra will always have major traces of mine. The measures of the Yondaime to siphon my chakra, Hah! Futile that is, even if bound by a seal. The bijuu will be able to gather chakra, its why the sage didn't just bind or seal away the whole Juubi when his death neared but rather just his physical body and divided his mental(spiritual) half which is us, otherwise the Juubi will escape. There is no such human capable of holding it when it will be able to gather all its power, for a few decades the sage was able to hold it but it hasn't even gathered a quarter of its true capacity during that time. The Juubi is does not have much sentience without complete power. With about 3/4** **th** **'s of it gathered, Its sentience comes back and that's never a good thing "** Kurama pondered for a few moments. The man burst out from his self-made dome and threw an imaginary projectile to the opening of the dome, probably thinking it was an explosive tagged kunai. Naruto then evaded a swipe from the now panting man clearly not meant for him.

 **"** **I will entrust you upon this knowledge but make sure no one else is to know of this or disasters are sure to come"** Kurama stated before continuing in a more quite tone **"The Juubi is the will of the world, the whole elemental nations. The Shinju was its heart. The fruit was its sign of trust to the humans. The fruit contained thousands of different seeds that was the source of different powers, it was why the human who dared eat it, gained a lot of powers….** *pause* **… The fruit was supposed to grow and grow till the time comes that it will fall. The moment it falls, it will shatter and reveal all the seeds contained in it, the people would then plant them and grow trees that would grow differently from each other. Each when would produce different fruits that when eaten, will give different kinds of abilities. This way everybody would share the gift of the Shinju. They would have probably called the fruits as "Devil Fruits" or with another name but no! A greedy human took it all for herself, her progeny tried to correct her mistakes by utilizing the powers for better use but the damage has been done. The heart has been shattered and destroyed, mistrust was already planted. The Juubi is the will of the world; it is the incarnation of its hatred against humanity. We were once one as the Juubi; the sage learned of this knowledge and tried to delay the inevitable by dividing us. He was successful; the Shinju acknowledged his efforts and decided that it would give humanity a second chance. However, should you humans betray the Shinju once more by combining all of us to form the Juubi once more….then its reason and 'Will' will resurface again and humanity may come to an end. The World didn't create humanity; it has no reason to let you stay, only for you to destroy it"** The beasts grim tone made it clearer to Naruto.

"So you actually cared for humanity eh?, since you didn't want the Juubi to resurface?" Naruto said, he wanted to make the mood lighter.

 **"** **Are you stupid? The only reason we bijuu's didn't allow the Juubi to rise fully is because we'd lose our consciousness forever, that is equivalent to dying to you humans. I want most of you to die but not at the cost of myself; even you yourself won't do that I'm sure" The beast turned its back signalling the end of the conversation.** The bijuu was fast on the defensive when the topic veered of a little.

"I'd sacrifice myself if it means my friends will be truly safe….and that includes you, Kurama" The last part was almost a whisper but the bijuu still heard it.

 **"** **Hmphhhh"** The bijuu turned its back and spoke no more signalling the end of their conversation _._ _ **'hmphhh, where did that even come from'**_

Naruto shook his head and looked at the unconscious form of the man he tried his seal on, his eyes were blank clearly due to too much shock, his mouth was had foams and his body still having minor spasms. Naruto's conscience tingled but he shrugged it off before it became a major thing.

"I see, it's such a shame I can't use it that way. Anyway looks like the experiment is a success. Now let us look at the notes" He looked at the three left onlookers who had varying levels of shock written on their faces and smiled for comical purposes. The three gulped and visibly relaxed a bit due to the distraction.

"The target is an average Chunnin level Ninja. He seems to be the strongest of you four so I picked him. Hmmmm, He lasted seven minutes and fourty-four seconds before falling deep into the illusion which is the primary part. He seems to not have enough chakra to override the seal that's why he wasn't able to destroy it. During the duration he seems to believe that he actually received the injuries if those grunts and screams proved true. Of course I won't tell the name of the technique during activation so victims won't find out what it is before it is too late. The technique lasted eleven minutes and thirty eight seconds in total, you three tell me, is this person some sort of a Genjutsu specialist? The info wasn't written in his data form. Oh if you don't tell me then you'll get a nastier one than he received" Cue another grin from Naruto and more three more swallows from the bound persons.

"Ye…..yes, He was a Genjutsu specialist. He was the strongest of us four but had the second lowest chakra capacity so he chose Genjutsu. He was low Jounin level on that area and Orochimaru-sama experimented on him for a while so his mental resilience was about that of a solid Jounin. Though his other skills only left him to be considered a Chunnin" The man who spoke suddenly grimaced after speaking, a seal on his head glowed and the memory of that topic he just spoke of slowly going blurry on his mind. Sooner or later the man was sure he'd be a vegetable head if he didn't escape.

"Oh, that's great. This means the experiment is even more of a success if it was able to shatter a Jounin level resilient mind, though other factors like; previous injuries, lesser chakra left, torture and shambled mental state should be taken into account. Anyway the seal still is far from finished, I've still got a ton of things to add. So since I've got nobody to tell, I'll inform you three, it's not like you can escape here. The seal should be able to take down a solid Jounin after 3-4 minutes provided preparations have been done like injuries and wasted chakra at its complete stage. This one's a strong seal meant for capturing enemies so it'll probably take time to finish" Naruto felt satisfied with his progress but his victims didn't feel so.

"Well, I've been here in this base for a bit and now I'm going to take my rest, you three be good prisoners or else you see those tags *points at the seal tags on the wall*, if you go out inside that red circle I wrote on your feet then they'll send a lightning bolt on you. There's a paralysis seal littered everywhere on this place too, and all kinds of traps I'm sure you know of already, you've tried to escape a total of four times already and failed on each attempt. This fifth time if you try to do so will make me give you a nasty seal nastier than what I gave your strongest member" Naruto spoke with seriousness before he walked to the unconscious one on the floor and bound him with the other three patched him up and performed basic medical Ninjutsu. He looked at the others and nodded to himself then did the same medical technique to patch them up a bit, enough for them to live but not enough to restore them that they may think of escape.

Naruto didn't want them unconscious all of the time; it was too risky and would increase their mental instability. He even fed them through his clones. After all his experiments required living sentient human targets not mindless bodies of humans.

 _'_ _I expect them to last for another three days before they go vegetable head, I hope I have another batch of deserving test subjects to come. I still have a lot I need to practice. If my ancestors probably had enough stomach to make nastier seals then they probably would have survived even with all those offending enemies. That's all in the past now though, I'll just make sure I won't fall to the level of Orochimaru's madness so that I won't be a lunatic like him. I came back to make a better future for everybody, not just become a megalomaniac. This seals should help me attain my goal, that is all about it, nothing more. These people deserve it, I won't ever do this to my friends'_ Naruto tried to instil it on his mind, and he believed that this mindset made him different from the likes of Orochimaru.

After doing what he needed to do he left to his home and got his well-deserved rest. He was fast asleep and didn't notice Kurama's voice echoing through his mindscape.

 **"** **Ashura never learned any "Senjutsu enhanced-Jinchūriki technique" he never became a Jinchūriki. Centuries came before the time of Hashirama Senju came which was when they hunted us and made the new generation of Jinchūriki. Ashura learned the Six Paths Sage Mode which is the enhanced form of Senjutsu not what you were speaking of. Who are you truly, Naruto Uzumaki? You have purposely made the seal block any outlet of old memories and knowledge so I would never learn of who you truly are. I can hear your thoughts but only those that you allowed me to…The pool of memories inside this mindscape stopped showing memories even as you dream. What is it you are hiding, I have purposely entrusted you that crucial secret in hopes that you would tell me more about yourself. The remnants of Ashura's chakra no longer are little but are starting to regrow themselves, you truly are of the progeny of the sage, I need to know more. The mysteries call upon me to be solved"** Kurama spoke while Naruto was having a dreamless sleep, he was truly curios of the young boy. He could feel a deep connection to the kid that made him grow comfortable with each passing moment. The sage's chakra had the same property he remembered, it was why Kurama truly revered the man even when he was no longer within the realm of the living.

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(Timeskip:24 days, Location: Training Ground Seven)

"Neh sensei! can't we have some sort real mission, we've been having these D rank **CHORES** for a while now. We won't grow stronger with these kind of missions" Sakura whined. It had been more thanthree weeks since they had started doing the compulsory D rank missions required for newly minted Genins and it was driving her insane.

Kakashi eye smiled to his students "Luckily for you three, we have finished the D rank mission quota for new Genin, usually it takes about a month and a half for most teams to finish the minimum mount but thanks to Naruto's clones we've finished it in record time. Now, now you mustn't be mad for taking those missions. Sasuke, can you explain why newly minted Genin have to take this compulsory D rank?" Kakashi looked at the brooding teen; Kakashi knew he had to make the kid feel a bit more special than the others due to his personality so he was willing to give the boy a bit of that. Of course anything excessive could be dangerous so he didn't do this a lot of times, or so he thought.

"Hn, Despite the number of strong ninja in this village. We can't spend them for the menial tasks requested by the civilian clients. That would later on make them rusty and that can't be allowed so those ninja with lesser skill are made to take this work. Since the highest number of ninja population belonged to the Genin, we didn't have much problem dividing this so the stronger ones were spared of this tasks. Besides, most of our village income from missions comes from the total of this D rank missions, their sheer number with taxes applied allows us to have enough money to improve our village" Sasuke spoke it in a 'it's an obvious thing you should know' tone all together accompanied with a stance reeking of a 'I know more things and so I'm superior than most' aura.

"You see sakura you should have figured that out already after all these days of doing it. Sasuke knows of it and since Naruto never complained, it means he knows it too" Naruto's eye twitched at that.

"Yeah right, He knows of course. He's an Uchiha after all" Sakura rolled her eyes at Sasuke. She had liked it during the academy times that the teachers praised Sasuke due to his skills and abilities. She had been one of his fans after all. However, when they got out of the academy, sakura thought she'd have her own attention and guidance from her sensei and grow into a wonderful kunoichi capable of defending herself. Instead what she got was more than two weeks of Chores accompanied with a sensei praising one of his students every now and then when he had the chance. It was tolerable at first but annoying when it happened more than a few times.

Sasuke replied to sakura, oblivious to her sarcasm "It was not just about me being an Uchiha, Sakura. It's also about doing your work as a ninja to see things underneath the underneath like Kakashi sensei said. Besides we have time to train during the late afternoon. I'm sure Naruto is doing that, why don't you do it yourself? Our clan was once revered to be the only one capable of rivalling the Senju, it's not just because we are born superior though it's a big factor but because we are born and raised with the mindset that training is the key to strength and power comes when you win against your enemies"

 _'_ _Yeah right, training to steal techniques that people worked hard to make and using it like it's your own. I know ninja have no honor but at least do not claim of power when your own is only gotten through stealing from the efforts of others'_ Naruto thought. As a practitioner of Fuinjutsu which is an art that required great effort and concentration, Naruto could almost feel how the other people felt who had their techniques stolen by the Uchiha just to be renamed and claimed theirs. Too bad for the Uchiha it's nearby impossible to steal Fuinjutsu.

"Mah, Mah Stop thinking about negative thoughts since were already done with the quota I have another activity for you. Today we have a guest I borrowed from another sensei; he's your past classmate so you should already be acquainted. You can come out now Kazuto" Kakashi called out.

A boy wearing 'all black' ninja clothes came out of a nearby tree and the four students looked at one another and greeted each other.

"So today I decided I'll teach you the basics of Kenjutsu, You see Kazuto…."Kakashi was stopped mid-sentence by sakura.

"Sensei we call him Kirito because he likes to combine his name"

"Ahhh I see, Kirigaya Kazuto combined makes Kirito, hmmm I think I should tell Jiraiya sama of that. He could probably make a chapter or two with that added info. Tsukina and Yomiru could have probably been combined into Tsukiyomi or Yomina, Anyways, Kirito here is the cousin of Hayate Gekko. Kirito's father was a Kirigaya so he didn't have the same surname as Hayate. Hayate Gekko is one of the best swordsmen our village has to offer, without his disease he'd probably be the best, He's been training young Kirito since the age of nine so there's no doubt that he's probably the strongest Kenjutsu user in your batch, that is if you have another Kenjutsu specialist in your class" Kakashi gave Naruto a suspicious look but he didn't seem bothered.

"Inside our previous class are **six** Kenjutsu users I know of; **Kazuto** **Kirigaya** and his cousin, **Suguha** **Kirigaya** and also **Asuna** **Yuuki** , They belong to a team with their sensei being Hayate Gekko. I previously thought they were especially requested by Hayate Gekko as they were known though not by much, due to their backgrounds in Kenjutsu but as you've said, they're both cousins of their sensei Asuna was probably added because she is Kirito's girlfriend. **Naotsugu Hasegawa** and **Shizuka Hanekura** are also practitioners of Kenjutsu who belong to a team with **Kei Shirogane** who is not a practitioner with their sensei being Yugao Uzuki, who upon researching I've found out to be a former anbu just like you sensei. The last person who practiced Kenjutsu in our batch was…. **me** " Naruto spoke stunning most of the people in the vicinity even in the shadows not only with the revelation of him being a practitioner but also his knowledge of the other practitioners using Kenjutsu as they were never publicly announced by the said individuals but rather, they practiced at home. Kirito wasn't surprised as it was he who told Naruto of the knowledge about the members of their team as Naruto asked a week ago during an "accidental" meeting of them in the training grounds when Naruto happened to pass by the said teens training ground. Kakashi knew of this already too , he had been spying on Naruto ever since the bell test but he just wanted to know if Naruto was willing to admit it to his teammates, so far Naruto has been doing good on not being suspicious to others, points for that.

"Wait you can do Kenjutsu and you never told us? That's unfair. You know what, I'm going home with you this afternoon and I'm going to train with you and that's final. I've heard the Hokage gifted a whole apartment to you so you should have spare rooms for me" Sakura crossed her arms for an extra effect"

"How did you know that? I never told anybody about JiJi's graduation gift to me" Naruto was shocked; he was telling the truth about not telling anybody about the old man's gift to him. This breach of security was alarming to him, he must learn of the identity of this spy as he or she could be a great danger to him or even a great asset if properly managed.

"Well duhh! Ino told me two days after the graduation, She also told me that your actually next on spot to Sasuke who was the rookie of the year, you were just a few points away. Ino asked her father how that was possible because you were always on the average in terms of written grades during the recent years and even dead last during the first few. Her father said the basis of choosing the rookie of the year relied more on practical evaluation than written exams, How she pursued her father to tell her those? I don't know, I even thought that I'd be Kunoichi of the year but no! Shizuka took that spot from me and Asuna took second. My written scores were far higher than them as I was perfect, my physical scores were only average but their physical exam scores dwarfed mine and their written scores weren't that bad too" Sakura's tone varied throughout her speech from amused, to excited and finally to a bitter one at end.

"What! Ino said that? How long has she been spying on me?" Naruto was alarmed now, if Ino learnt more than a few things about him then the whole village is bound to know already as the girl was known to be the "Gossip Queen"

"HAH!Ino doesn't just spy on you; she spies on everybody. To get the juiciest details, she asks for compensation which is mostly about gossip that she doesn't know yet. She even knows a few things from the Jounin Gossip Ring which should have been impossible, heck we don't even have an idea where she gets all the info she has. All that we know is that almost all of the information she shares are accurate and true"

Naruto was baffled and had his jaw hanging. Here he was looking for prospective candidates as allies that held great skills in various arts, and yet there was Ino who he had just passed up as another useless fangirl but now was possibly the best candidate for spymaster and information gathering in their batch. Naruto had to get on the good side of that girl, and he had a few plans in mind for her to become his ally.

The other persons looking at the exchange of Naruto and Sakura sweatdropped, they had never seen Naruto show this much emotion since his earlier times at the academy. He had slowly transformed from the goofy kid asking for dates to the quite cool dude in the back of class in a short period of time.

*Cough…Cough*."Ahem, I believe weve had enough rest so let's go to the true purpose of why I've brought young Kirito here. Kirito I believe you have the things I asked for from Hayate?" Kakashi asked Kirito.

"Hai Kakashi-Sempai" He took out a scroll and released its contents revealing a few swords made of a strange metal with inscriptions on their handles and the blade. He took out scroll and did the same, this time they contained two wooden swords.

"Now you see, these ninjatō are real but have seals inscribed on them to make them more blunted. The other is just training swords for practice but with seals for reinforcement. You can inspect them if you want Naruto, I heard you are pretty good at skills and from the things you revealed at the bell test I'm not even surprised" Kakashi smiled as Naruto's eye twitched.

'What are you up to you scarecrow' Naruto thought. Naruto couldn't stop the temptation though and he ended up inspecting the said seals, the look of triumph in Kakashi's face was eminent to Naruto though and he felt that he lost some sort of competition.

"Now what have you observed Naruto?" Kakashi asked, his attention now focused fully to deciphering data from Naruto's answer.

Naruto looked at the seals with the eyes like that of a seasoned ninja and spoke with the tone like that of a professor "The ones on the wooden swords is the **Earth reinforcement Seal,** it was known to be first made by Mito Uzumaki. It has 5 revealed levels and a secret 6th level whose method of creation was lost other than the samples who were already compressed so reverse engineering would require at least Grandmaster Rank Fuin specialist, this seal is a basic one but its final level isn't. This seal works by enforces earth natured chakra and manipulates it to fit to the properties of the wood making it more durable and lasting depending on the seal level and wood material quality, the lowest makes the wooden sword almost twice as sturdy and the highest level making the wooden sword capable of blocking even a sharp katana reinforced with unrefined chakra and with the best quality wood it can even block natured chakra. Those ones could last even a century if used only for training and not real combat. The final level requires only a Master Rank but secret level requires not only the Fuinjutsu maker being Grandmaster Rank but also an adept at Earth nature Chakra manipulation, the secret level also had a lot of inscriptions that were never revealed too. The inscriptions point them to be level 6 *Kirito gasped at this* which means they are made by somebody truly great if he or she was able to decipher the formula, I didn't even know we have such a skilled fuin expert in this village. This sword looks new too. I should probably research the source of this I could probably learn a thing or two if I apprenticed on that person…." Naruto seemed surprised with what he discovered but continued. Kakashi noticed that while he considered the source to be great, the prospective of apprenticing from an individual whose rarity in these days could be counted with the fingers of two hands didn't seem that great to him, should that individual have been present Kakashi was sure that even he himself would try his best to apprentice from such individual.

Naruto's continuation relieved Kakashi of his unwanted suspicion "…. I doubt that's possible though, such an individual will have way more than one prospective apprentice applying. It would take too much effort and time for that trouble; I'll just go for it when I'm strong enough to prove myself. Moving on, these real swords or ninjatō have a **Blunted Edge Seal** on their bladed sides. Compared to the other, this one is dwarfed in terms of quality. Its seals activate at contact with anything, at which time they will 'blunt' the already blunt blades by creating a coating on the tip of the blades with chakra that are actually produced to be used as **Healing chakra.** As you know already, healing chakra is made to heal and not injure but the blade says so otherwise so instead of healing those who are hit, it instead blunts the blade. The only thing complex to the seal is the application of the Healing Chakra to the blade which is impossible through normal means as Healing Chakra is made to be absorbed by living beings and not inorganic ones. The activation of the seal has no delays too. That's all I see in this swords. I hope I provided enough information for you" Naruto then looked around his companions and thought _'Ughhh, me and my mouth. I got too carried away and forgot my façade. That's too much knowledge for a teen. Hey Kurama, do you have any idea for an escape route for this situation?'_

 ** _'_** ** _Tell them you were given apprenticeship and a few books by two traveling adventurers from the northern lands. Their names are Sora and Shiro. The scarecrow should get the reference. Don't ask me how I knew of that. He won't ask how and when they taught you, just delay him about the location of the books; it's easy to get it should it be needed. I'll tell you later. Don't disturb me for a while, I need my rest'_**

 _'_ _Thanks Kurama'_

"Whoa! I never knew you were that informed in Fuinjutsu. I actually looked it up a bit in the library but most of the things there available for academy students are way too limited and all of them point out that you must have a sensei or mentor so that you can start learning the art. Hayate said he couldn't mentor me since he doesn't have enough knowledge and its dangerous to learn it without a mentor, who's your mentor?" Kirito asked, excitement dripping with each word.

"I am curious of that myself too" Sasuke added

"Shouldn't you know a mentor Kirito? After all these came from you" Naruto asked as an answer to their question.

"Ahhhh, about those, I never knew they were that great. We use these wooden swords to train younger persons in our family. We are given one at the age of 6 for practice swinging and kata forms, at the age of 9 we get our mentors which are older ones of our family. Suguha and I got Hayate, Asuna was included too since she's actually my fiancée since birth due to arranged marriage. Anyway it is why Hayate was our Sensei today, it was especially requested by our clan, though we are only a minor clan and don't hold much political power so we have no seat for clan heads. Anyway our individual swords can only be used for training so that it won't be destroyed and can be passed down to coming generations, we are also required to return it upon reaching Chunnin rank. It can be borrowed if proper request is made though which is what I did now. We have roughly thirty of these gifted to us by Mito-sama and its wood was made by Hashirama-sama, its why its top quality, we lost three already since then. Unfortunately Mito-sama who is the wife of the Shodaime has already passed away so I don't actually have a viable mentor at the time. We have a Voyager rank in our clan who mentored from an Uzumaki but she's already nearing a century in age and has been bedridden for a decade already. She's still actually alive only due to the support of seals she prematurely made."

"I see, what about these true swords?" Naruto inquired.

"Hayate sensei used them for his students last year, said something about being a gift of two individuals as gift since he gave them an idea for something" Kirito answered.

Kakashi's voice interrupted the teens talk "Now that's done, would you perhaps tell us about your in depth knowledge of seals Naruto. I have asked the Hokage about the topic, after all your performance in the bell test was above great; The Hokage had answered me telling me he allowed you up to Jounin level entry but only on Fuinjutsu topics on the library since he believed you had innate talent on the art. The ones you spoke of aren't even written in that section of the library, trust me, I've done my research when I was still learning too. Everything in that library even to anbu libraries are only enough for those up to master rank, voyager rank after all involves adventuring to discover more through yourself and learning new uses of Fuinjutsu. The knowledge you just said to us aren't written anywhere in Konoha Libraries minus the Kage Vault" Kakashi's voice held edge, Naruto knew that one wrong word and all his efforts to become unsuspicious would be of no use. Unfortunately for the scarecrow, Naruto was prepared for this with the help of Kurama.

"I was given apprenticeship by two traveling adventurers from the northern lands. They saw me after school when I pranked a teacher and the teacher called me by my last name. They called me out then and said that I probably had the talent for the art in my blood. It was why I started acting different too. They taught me secretly till last year where they left and left me a few books. I won't tell you about the location of those books, they made me promise not to give them to anyone even the Hokage. I also told Hokage JiJi I was getting a few books from some friends and I can't tell him who they were yet and what those books are even if you ask Hokage JiJi" Smooth lies, Naruto did tell the Hokage about receiving books but those were actually just Kids books from Ayame and he paraphrased it so that the Hokage would think somebody was caring for Naruto and somebody was teaching him lessons about life. Naruto was happy he didn't tell the Hokage who gave him the books or what those books were.

Sakura and Kirito took the information with stride and believed immediately. Sasuke believed too but hi jealousy started acting again. 'Why him? Why not me, Why is it always him?!' Sasuke thought

"These adventurers, do you know their names? You do realize that talking to strangers is dangerous right Naruto?" Kakashi spoke, the suspicious lifted again a bit but wanted confirmation for finality.

"Since they already left, I can tell their names. They are Sora-sensei and Shiro-sensei…" Naruto grew silent and lowered his head to give extra effect for his next statement.

"Nobody taught me talking to strangers was dangerous…..Nobody wanted to talk to me…Everybody just ignored me…"Naruto raised his head and smiled bitterly.

"They were the first persons other than Hokage Jiji and Ichiraku family who cared for me so I accepted them as friends with just a few days of talk. Both of them kept calling me brother, they said we were family" he finished.

Naruto got what he expected as their reactions. All three lowered their heads a bit, even Sasuke. Clearly they understood what Naruto was talking about and were a bit guilty during academy times too. They had taken steps to improve their relationship to Naruto now though. Kakashi took the hit at most though, the look of depression and self-disappointment present in his eyes, unseen by the Genin but seen by the 'trained' eye of Naruto.

A few moments of silence passed before Kakashi clapped his palms together to get the mood up and spoke "Moving on. For the purpose of the activity today, Naruto and Kirito get your blunted swords and walk to each edge of the field parallel to one another. You should know what I am talking about already by now"

"Hai Sensei!" Both teen spoke. Kirito more than excited took his sword and went to his position. He had been curious of Naruto's skill ever since their talk about Kenjutsu after the academy.

When they were at their spots, Kakashi decided to tell Naruto something"Naruto, those two; Sora and Shiro are actually called **–Blank-** when together, the both of them are level 4 Grandmaster rank fuin experts and the same person who gave the blunted swords to Hayate. They probably had no purpose for the sword and decided to give them as a gift. Those two are actually Uzumaki; Shiro is a whitehead though so some suspected her to be a fake. I'm happy you met some family early in your life. Those two travel together and give gifts to those who they deem are worth it or those who gave them ideas for new projects. They have been requested at all the Hidden Villages as allies and even threatened them if they refused. They were never caught though; nobody lived to tell the tale about those who took it too far in capturing them. The reason why they were called travelers from the north is because they would always exit as if going to the direction of the north even if they were found next on a city south to where they just exited. I'm sure you were given the poem in the textbook about them"

Sakura and Asuna raised their arms and asked simultaneously "What's the poem sensei?" Then looked at each other and giggled.

Kakashi spoke with mysterious tone.

"Be wary of the travelers from the north.

Together as one

But together as none,

For together they are **-Blank-**

They vanish like the wind

And strike like a hurricane

Be wary of the spells they enchant,

Death is but a fickle thing

Than what the two can do

Be wary of the travelers from the north

A present they may give

But something, it may entail

Be wary of the travelers from the north

Alone as strong as beasts

Together to be feared as monsters"

"The two may look like teenagers but they are actually as old the Sandaime Hokage. Their skills in Fuinjutsu helped in that regard, the Uzumaki were also known for their longevity so you shouldn't be surprised, I heard one of the Sanin also used a seal to prevent old age, but hers seem to be illusions"

The Genin seemed to have questions of their own but Kakashi didn't allow them to speak and called out.

"Now Sakura and Sasuke as well as you two students of Hayate hiding take a few steps back and gather around me. The boys will have a match and they'd probably get too much adrenaline. Better safe than sorry" Kakashi called out.

Asuna and Suguha came out from hiding and looked embarrassed. Asuna spoke "Sorry, We couldn't pass up the chance when we heard from sensei that you requested Kirito-kun was the best on the three of us. He's a prodigy who can now hold his own against Hayate sensei on a pure Kenjutsu match for a few minutes so we excused ourselves from sensei and hid here to watch. I heard sensei already taught Naruto-san for two sessions already and he's pretty good too so we wanted to see this match. We hope you don't mind"

"No worries, now please be silent. I suspect both of them to be very skilled in this area since they both specialize in it but Naruto has another art he is busy of so we don't know his level. I'm not very good in Kenjutsu myself and the only reason I'd probably win against these two is due to experience, experience is the best teacher. You all should not forget that" Kakashi answered.

"The rules are simple. Only Kenjutsu is allowed. Unless disarmed, Hand to hand combat is prohibited. As a reminder No Ninjutsu, Genjutsu and especially NO Fuinjutsu is allowed for you Naruto. We don't want you blowing up Kirito into pieces if you are backed down in a corner. The fight is decided when one of you forfeits or is able to knock down and hold the blade against his opponent. Perform the seal of confrontation" Naruto and Kirito did so and readied themselves for combat.

"At the count of the three you can start…..one, two….three!"

* * *

Kirito darted forward and thrust his sword forward to Naruto who deflected the blade by its side making Kirito spin, Naruto prepared to attack but was put on the defensive when Kirito instantly used the momentum to perform a sword technique.

 **"** **Sword Art(Kenjutsu):Treble Scythe, first step!"** Kirito suddenly started to spin and vanished to Naruto's right, he blocked the first strike completely. **"Second Step!"** the voice signalled to the unguarded left and gave Naruto enough time to block, He wasn't expecting the momentum to not decrease even when he blocked the first strike coupled with enhanced chakra, Naruto was pushed backed.

 **"** **Final Step!"** Kirito announced.

 _'_ _Too fast!'_ This time it came from behind and Naruto had to reveal a trick on his sleeve or he'd take a major hit.

 **"** **Sword Art: VanGuardians Stand!"** Naruto turned to his back held a stance lowering his left foot a bit as support and putting the support to his front. His sword held on a defensive manner his face carefully guarded. Naruto's form suddenly emitted a faint golden aura(not to be mistaken for SageofSixpath Mode).

The third strike hit and the two combatants held their swords against each other. Kirito's attack held great offensive force and was visible when it hit but Naruto didn't budge a bit nor did he seem to have trouble keeping up against the standstill when Kirito kept his sword pressed against Naruto's. Kirito seemed to have trouble keeping up the push and jumped back.

The exchange was only a few seconds but the onlookers were amazed especially the Genins.

Kirito looked baffled "How? This technique was especially made to counter what you just did to me. Normally a first strike rush thrust was more dangerous to the user than the target as it is easy to deflect but this technique evened out the risks as countermeasure. It is supposed to have increasing momentum even when the first and second strikes are blocked. The third strike is empowered with the momentum as well the chakra infused to it. Even Hayate sensei was never able to completely block that third strike when I was successful on finishing the move, how did you do that?"

Naruto stood, the faint golden aura gone. He grinned as he spoke "My senseis didn't only teach me about Fuinjutsu, besides you still haven't mastered it since you still have to call out their names for your brain to properly execute rather than just mentally ordering yourself. Now for my turn I still haven't mastered the VanGuardians style but here goes, dodge this!" Naruto darted the same way Kirito did earlier If only a bit slower for something he was preparing. Kirito went on the defensive.

 **"** **Sword Art: VanGuardians Push!"** Kirito raised an eyebrow. They were prohibited to use hand to hand combat and a push of a blade is made only during standstill and Naruto was doing a thrust, also it's not like he would want to block a strike from somebody capable of blocking of his strongest fast counter moves so he would just waited for the attack to come, dodge it and strike.

He would never have the chance to dodge this one though.

Naruto's form emitted that same faint golden aura around his body and the tip of his sword suddenly formed a golden shield that looked eerily similar to an aegis.

'Crap I already made the move to dodge' Kirito wasn't able to dodge the shield as big as his whole form and got hit. There was no major damage done but He knew this was just the first step.

 **"** **PUSH!"** Naruto screamed. The screamed was accompanied by echoes that came out of nowhere and made it seem like there was a legion screaming together Naruto that made it seem scary.

It baffled Kakashi that he couldn't sense any form of Genjutsu from Naruto. _'What the heck? It's the same level as Gai's sunset Genjutsu. There's not even a minute trace of it being used!'_

Kirito was pushed fast and was approaching fast on a nearby tree _'Ughh! This will do great damage if I hit that tree, why did I ever let myself be caught by this technique, it doesn't even seem like a Kenjutsu technique. Why does Naruto look like he's riding a horse holding a spear not a sword? That golden aura is probably making me hallucinate. I have to stop holding back!'_

 **"** **Weight Seal Release!Resistance Seal Release!"** Kirito's Scream signalled his comeback.

He forced chakra to his feet and jumped sideways against Naruto's attack escaping only seconds away from hitting the tree.

 **BOOM!** An explosion was heard when Naruto hit the tree and made a cloud of smoke that dissipated fast. The tree creaked and fell like a tree hit by

chainsaw.

"What kind of Kenjutsu was that? Were you trying to kill me?!" Kirito asked in a comical manner while screaming unable to hold his demeanour when he saw what could have happened to him.

"Naruto, stop using those VanGuardians techniques, you could have hurt Kirito. What the heck were those and why are you glowing gold, what is with those creepy echo voices, what is with the horse and spear like you were a charging cavalier, is that even Kenjutsu?" Sakura asked, she was too shocked and had a lot of questions so she didn't realize that she was disrespecting the rules of engagement.

Kakashi let Sakura's interruption go for now and spoke "I had heard that there was an ancient civilization that fit the descriptions of what you just did. Though I believe that they are great for combat, you must hold yourself against using attacks like the last one you did. It can be traumatizing to aspiring students like these girls. I agree with sakura too, those two techniques you just utilized don't seem like Kenjutsu. Why don't you use the Azure Mantis Sword Style that you used against me during the bell test eh? I was pretty sure that was the swordless style so its counterpart should have been taught to you too. I was shocked at first that you knew that style but since your mentors are both known legendary individuals then it should be given they would teach you something epic too" This time Kakashi's tone no longer held the underlying suspicion it had earlier. Right now he just wanted to see Naruto perform the technique against an opponent with experience levels nearing his.

"Hai Sensei! I won't tell you about those techniques but I'll use azure mantis style" He looked at Kirito who looked shocked.

"Wait a minute!How do you know that lost art! Our family are the only with the knowledge of that style! They didn't even teach me that yet" Kirito called out but Naruto answered him with a diagonal slash, Kirito was on guard even while speaking so he was able to guard it down.

"That's my secret, you'll have to figure it out on your own. Prepare yourself, you'll see why it's a technique feared by many" Naruto whispered with closed eyes.

When he opened them, they were a tad bit Darker Blue in color and turned into slits like that of a mantis, this alarmed Kirito as he knew what this transformation meant. 'Morphing!He already knows how to morph! That's clearly the Azure Mantis Morph'

 **"** **Sword Art: Azure Mantis Style: First Step, eight strikes!"** Naruto's attacks blurred with each slash made, he had purposely injected minimal amount of chakra to reduce the damage done to Kirito but he wasn't expecting Kirito to close his eyes and block all eight strikes without much effort.

"You don't really think that you're the only one with that eye trick don't you Naruto? I wasn't born on a family of Kenjutsu experts without learning the art Morphing"

Kirito opened his eyes and Naruto was greatly shocked. It had taken him around ten months to learn his first morph before things started pacing faster and the morphing technique allowed Naruto to use clones as speedup. Without clones he probably would have taken almost a decade to complete his first morph!but this kid who just started learning at the age of nine in Kenjutsu and probably around 11 or 12 started morphing had already done his first morph. It was even possible that he had more forms hidden just like Naruto. It was easier to learn new morphs after mastering your first so it wasn't impossible.

"What do you say Naruto? Do you think your Insect morph can do against mine?" Kirito taunted

"What makes you think yours is stronger just because its real counterpart is bigger than mine? You can try to crush this mantis, but just make sure to watch your hands on your handle. You might lose them in the process" Naruto answered. Kirito's eyes were in slits too but that of a snake and it was an intimating sight to see, even though Naruto wasn't, his other teammates were.

 **"** **Azure Mantis Style: Azure Blade Waltz!" "Crimson Serpent Style: Crimson Blade Waltz!"**

Both called out at the same time and blade waltz begun.

* * *

 **-ChapterEnd-**

Authors Note: I'm sorry if I left it a cliff-hanger but I just thought of trying it once. Don't worry though guys I won't do this much of the time but the word count is already at 11k plus so I thought it would be okay enough.

Trivia: **Treble Scythe** is an actual SAO-sword skill(manga only) .

The **VanGuardians** techniques were made up hope you don't get mad at me for that.

You may have also noticed that I put up the Sword Art part even if Kenjutsu is translated to Sword Technique. I just thought that it sounds cooler just like Martial Arts instead of Martial Techniques.

Congrats to those who got the reference about the travelers, yes the two travelers named **Sora &Shiro** are the protagonist of the anime called **NoGameNoLife.** This fanfic is starting to look like a cross-over too ughhh, i hope i don't get haters because of that mistake since this is my first fic.

Oh and an extra note,,,Naruto didn't train with the -blank- in case you got fooled by naruto's lies hehe. He was just making up things to cover up his story and Kakashi thought it was true so the story may have seemed like it actually happened at one point even if it never did.

Anyway as always, your reviews will energize me to post new chapters so…..

 **R &R**


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